f/k/a . . .

“Senryu” is poetry that is structurally similar to haiku, but primarily concerned with human nature; it is often humorous or satiric.  Senryu can be particularly enjoyable for lawyers and other city folk — who are frequently far more attuned to human foibles than to nature’s essence.  See the senryu webpages compiled by Ray Rasmussen for several definitions and explanations, plus examples and relevant links.

• 
  
  Author/poet Jane Reichhold of Aha Poetry has noted: “Because haiku and senryu are written much alike, often on the same subjects and usually by the same authors, great controversies have ensued over which is what.”  Poet Alan Pizzarelli has artfully stated the difference:  “… if it is man within the world, it is haiku. If it is the world within the man, it is senryu.” 
  
  
• 
  
  Some distinguished haiku publications continue to differentiate between haiku and senryu; others no longer do.   Also, check out “Haiku or Senryu? How to Tell the Difference,” by Elizabeth St. Jacques.
  
  
• 
  
  Click here, to see the Collection of winning senryu from the Haiku Society of America’s annual Gerald Brady Memorial Senryu Contest.

 

update:  In 2005, Simply Haiku magazine added a special senryu

section, which will now appear in every edition.  It is edited by poet

Alan Pizzarelli.  In his Editor’s Introduction, he says:

“. . .  It portrays the characteristics of human beings and

psychology of the human mind. Even when senryu depict

living things such as animals, insects, and plant life, or when

they depict inanimate objects, they are portrayed with the

emphasis on their human attributes.

 

“The senryu can make use of poetic devices such as simile,

personification, and metaphor. It can also employ puns, parody

and satire. . . . Senryu are not all strictly intended to be humorous.

Many senryu express the misfortunes, the hardships and woe of

humanity.”

 

update (May 2005) : See  our “is it or ain’t it haiku?” to learn more about the

haiku genre and how it differs from senryu and various forms of “quasi-haiku”.

 

George Swede has written some of my favorite senryu.  Here are a pair:

young widow

asks for another

fortune cookie

 

 

alone at last

I wonder where

everyone is

 

 

  from  Almost Unseen: Selected Haiku of George Swede 

(Brooks Books, 2000)  

 

• 
  
  by dagosan: 

dad’s armchair

hindsight

is 20/40                        [7-17-04]