Senryu

If Spring is for Haiku, then Summer for Senryu.

Updated 17 July 2010.

Senryu is new to me, but thanks to my friend, Robert Hanson, comes to my attention. Just as in haiku, senryu is an unrhymed three line poem of 5, 7, and 5 syllables. The difference is that while haiku requires reference to nature, senryu makes an ironic statement stemming from some observation of human nature.

An article in Rafu Shimpo, "The Joy of Senryu (July 12, 2010) comments on the strange neglect of senryu in the U.S. though now a hundred years old in the Japanese-American community. Various examples in Japanese and English translation appear in this article.

I am trying to follow suit.

We rally for food,
whole, healthy, sustainable -
risky business.

An old book argued
tv's eroding effects
in '73.

Our grandson read Time
for three years, now 17,
The Economist.

On Facebook twelve months,
the longest comment exchange
has been on taxes.

In the clouded sky,
no stars break the humid air;
so fireflies will do.

A new library,
bustling, and bursting with print,
dozens at their screens.
____

Copyright 2010 by Roger Sween

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