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RE: What is Renga?
Renga definitely is play, but as I think elementary school playgrounds show us, half the fun of playing is arguing about the rules. It helps to have some rules, if only to have fun bending/breaking them.
Where is the writers block renga group located? I'm have trouble locating it...
I can agree with that, about knowing the rules so you know when you are breaking them, when we are talking about haiku or tanka, but with renga... there are so many convoluted rules. Every verse of the common 36 verse renku had a rule. Of course even those old renga masters (like Basho) often ignored the rules when the meetings were of a more casual nature, which perhaps proves your point, but I think that is a lot to present to most casual poets, so I usually skip it. If folks really want to know, I have a detailed listing of all the rules in my bookshelf somewhere, but I think the spirit of renga was (at least originally) to have fun with a less serious kind of poetry (a break from the serious business of composing waka), so that is what I try to present.
Hmm... I've edited this post a few times, but none of my links seem to work. They are changing things up at the writers block, so maybe that is why. Here, try this link and follow their instructions --> http://www.mspfictionworkshop.com/how-to-join-the-workshop/ -- once you are in the group, you will have to introduce yourself and say hi and one of the mods will then give you access to all the channels (we've had to move to this system to fight all the spam). You will see the renga channel easily enough after that.