Renhai Studio Archives

A Collection of Renhai by members of The Renhai Studio

The Year Passed

A Renhai by Vaughn Seward & Ron Seward

A tattered kite
hangs high in the elm —
chilly wind.

A snowdrift covers
the pool's shallow end.

Almost hidden,
a wasp's nest in the feeder —
old thresher.

Archive Id: 106
Vaughn Seward: Canada
Ron Seward: Canada
Written:: December 18, 2008

Theme: Objects Remaining from Other Seasons; Natural vs. Man-made
Season: Winter
Kigo: Chilly wind; Snow drift
Verse Form: 2-3-2, 3-3, 2-3-2 (Rhythm)
Process: Composite

Links 1/2: Wind; High / Low (pool bottom).

Links 2/3: Container (For water: pool / For grain: thresher);
Swimming / Flying; Hidden (Pool bottom / Wasp nest).

Links 3/1: Old, derelict / Torn; Flight (Kite / Wasp).

Notes: This renhai was written by Vaughn and his father Ron at a face-to-face coffee meeting. The work is unique in two ways. First, the process was neither Forward nor Reverse but Composite. General theme ideas were discussed and sketched out and concepts for each verse were brain-stormed and linkages discussed. At each stage bits and pieces of the renhai came together in a non-linear fashion. For example, the thresher verse was developed for the middle but was later re-written to be the third verse.

Second, it was decided to write in the winter season but we came up with the idea of incorporating references to things left over from other seasons, i.e.:

Spring: Kite (verse 1)
Summer: Swimming pool (verse 2)
Autumn: Threshing machine, harvest time (verse 3)

Now days grain farmers employ air-conditioned combines and ride around their fields harvesting and threshing their crops all at the same time. But it wasn't always this easy. Before the late 1700's grain was threshed manually with two poles attached by a leather thong. In 1784 a Scottish mechanical engineer invented a machine to help with this important and labour intensive job. Early versions were fed by hand and powered by horse. They were later powerd by steam and even later by gasoline engines.

Today much of this old-time farm machinery can be found abandoned in fields and rural locations, rusting and slowly returning to the land. Even when in active use, wasps and hornets would occasionally choose them as the place to build a home (as Ron can attest). The feeder is one part of the thresher that sticks out and is where wasps are likely to build a nest that is visible from outside (they more often build nests inside the machine). Click here for more info about threshing machines:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshing_machine