On the radio this morning came an interesting report:
Each spring, Japan is consumed by a contest for style of poetry called Senryu. The poems are just three spare lines about the trials and tribulations of daily life.
April is National Poetry Month here in the United States. But in Japan, poetry is also big this time of year when a popular poetry contest sweeps the country. It offers modest prizes and absolutely no fame whatsoever. Entries are by pen name only, but the event is as closely watched as a celebrity sighting or a speech by the prime minister. Competitors use a style of verse that is virtually unknown outside Japan. Lucy Craft looked for rhyme and reason behind the country’s love affair with this special style of poetry.
And so it seems that if you go into hair-splitting, most of my collection of seventeen syllables are indeed Senryu and not Haiku. Perhaps I’ll use the correct term when trying to impress someone LOL. In the meantime you’re stuck with some haikupedia about Senryu, ’cause that’s how I roll. (note that “’cause that’s how I roll’ is five syllables. Go for it!)
Senryu not Haiku
as I awoke this morning
I discovered truth
Content matters not
only the syllabic form
and the writer’s thought
are senryu darker?
don’t all poems observe the truth:
life and us in it?
