haiku and senryu

[josie hibbing]

Hi! Will you please tell me the difference between a haiku and a senryu. Are all senryu suppose to be humurous and about people? I have written haiku inspired by people that have a serious topic. I get confuse if they should be in the haiku or senryu category. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Josie

[cat]

Hello, Josie,

Here's Michael Dylan Welch on the subject:

http://www.haijinx.org/I-1/articles/welch.html

And here's Kathy Lippard Cobb -- you have to scroll down towards the bottom to find it:

http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/haiku/haiku.html

And here are a whole bunch of links from Ray Rasmussen:

http://raysweb.net/senryu/links.html

And here's Prune Juice: Journal of Senryu and Kyoka, which is very good reading:

http://www.prunejuice.wordpress.com

Hope this helps.

cat

[ericcoliu]

Cat, thanks for these helpful links.

Chen-ou

[josie hibbing]

Thanks Cat! Very good reading! I learned a lot from the links. You are very helpful.  :)

Josie

[shimi]

I know this is probably a bit late, but I noticed the link to one of the articles from the haijinx archives.

Quoting myself ("A Lost Introduction")

Indeed, clarifying this split between haiku and senryû is one of the primary goals of haijinx. The "hai" in haiku is "playful" or "humorous" and we wish to highlight this particular feature. There is simply no hai in haiku without some sense of humor, lightness, or playfulness. We are not alone in this belief. Famed translator R.H. Blyth, in Haiku, Volume One: Eastern Culture (The Hokuseido Press, Tokyo, 1949), defines several key characteristics of haiku. Humor is first on that list. Akito Arima, the past president of the Haiku International Association, writes in the preface to A Hidden Pond (Kadokawa Shoten, Japan, 1997) that "[t]he universal character of haiku may be due to the fact that they always contain a sense of humor, as well as scenes of nature and daily life, things appreciated by anybody." This list of primarily Japanese experts could go on.

— Mark Brooks, A Lost Introduction
http://www.haijinx.org/quarterly/a-lost-introduction/

haijinx IV:1 includes Frank Dullaghan's new article, "Humour, Life and Haiku"

http://www.haijinx.org/IV-1/articles/dullaghan.humour.html

And while there have not been many recent articles on hai, humor and haiku in haijinx, the archive boasts the thoughts of several poets on the topic.


haijinx I:1 (Spring 2001)


Susumu Takiguchi — Sense of Humour: The Forgotten Prerequisite of Haiku
http://www.haijinx.org/I-1/articles/takiguchi.html

Nobuyuki Yuasa — Laughter in Japanese Haiku (reprint)
http://www.haijinx.org/I-1/articles/yuasa-p1.html

Wiliam J Higginson — Humor in Bashô's Hokku I: The Childlike
http://www.haijinx.org/I-1/articles/higginson.html

Serge Tomé — Humour in the Western Haiku
http://www.haijinx.org/I-1/articles/tome-p1.html

Michael Dylan Welch — The Difference Between Haiku and Senryu
http://www.haijinx.org/I-1/articles/welch.html

John Crook — Humour in Haiku
http://www.haijinx.org/I-1/crook/index.html

Ikuyo Yoshimura — haiku with humour
http://www.haijinx.org/I-1/yoshimura/index.html


haijinx I:2 (Summer 2001)


Wiliam J Higginson — Humor in Bashô's Hokku II: Playing in the Tradition
http://www.haijinx.org/I-2/articles/higginson.html

David G Lanoue — Issa's Comic Vision
http://www.haijinx.org/I-2/articles/lanoue.html

Ryu Yotsuya — Humor and Kusatao's Haiku
http://www.haijinx.org/I-2/articles/yotsuya.eng.html

Randy Brooks — Consonance as the Genesis of Humor in Haiku
http://www.haijinx.org/I-2/brooks/index.html

David Cobb — Humour in Haiku
http://www.haijinx.org/I-2/cobb/index.html

Dhugal Lindsay — Humour in Haijin
http://www.haijinx.org/I-2/lindsay/index.html


haijinx II:1 (Spring 2002)


Patrick Gallagher — Tell About the Truth As If It Were False
http://www.haijinx.org/II-1/articles/gallagher.html

Wiliam J Higginson — Humor in Bashô's Hokku III: Cosmic Humor
http://www.haijinx.org/II-1/articles/higginson.html

Janice Bostok — To Laugh Or To Cry
http://www.haijinx.org/II-1/bostok/index.html

Peggy Willis Lyles — What's So Funny?
http://www.haijinx.org/II-1/lyles/index.html

[John McManus]

Some great links there Mark, thanks for posting them.

Looks like I'm in for a night of reading!

Regards,
John

[cat]

Wow, Mark!

An impressive list of articles by some heavy hitters.

Thank you.

cat

[AlanSummers]

I just wanted to highlight the great number of weblinks for haiku with humor, and senryû as this has been brought up in other topic posts as well.

Enjoy checking out all the links to haiku and senryû. ;-)

Alan

[Lorin]

Thanks for posting those links, Mark. Very good reading indeed!  8)

- Lorin

[Asa-gao]

Just adding to the knowledge base here via the trusted source, Jane Reichhold; titled: Senryu as a dirty word (me smiling big), she states:

You can take an apple, cut it in half, call the side with the worm hole senryu and the perfect half haiku, but it is still an apple.

Would argue further that both sides are perfect :-)

http://www.ahapoetry.com/AHI%20senryu%20art.html