Is This the Way the Universe Works?: (555 Verses / 77 Verses) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9083318885 ISBN 13: 9789083318882

Publisher: Set Margins' publications, 2023

Synopsis

A whimsically illustrated book containing performative poems to be read aloud

A tanrenga poem is a conversation between a three-line haikulike poem and a two-line poem written by another writer in response. British artist-curator Gavin Wade (born 1971) and poet-musician Paul Conneally (born 1959) offer here a collection of such conversations, written between 2017 and 2023.

About this title

From the Back Cover

This book contains performative ‘tanrenga’ poems, intended to be read out loud. A ‘tanrenga’ appears similar to a ‘tanka’, a form of five-lined Japanese poetry, but there are some differences. The poem is a conversation between what is essentially a three-line haiku and a two-line verse written by another writer in response, in this case British artist and curator Gavin Wade and poet Paul Conneally. The ‘tanrenga’ form was popular in Japan from the start of the Heian period until the end of cloistered rule, and would sometimes appear in imperial anthologies of ‘waka’, which it closely resembles. This collection includes images by James Langdon, based on photographs by Gavin Wade.

Edition details

• Publisher: Set Margins' publications
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9083318885
• ISBN 13: 9789083318882
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400
• Editor: Wade Gavin, Conneally Paul