Haikus / Senryu
Haikus are a form of Japanese poetry dating back to the 16th century. They were mainly used to describe an aspect of Nature that the writer felt particularly strongly about.
Senryu have a similar structure to haiku but are based around humans and human emotions
Three of the most famous Haiku - style writers were:
Matsuo Basho (1644 - 1694 ), Yosa Buson, (1716 - 1784 ) and Kobayashi Issa (1763 - 1827 ) .
Each haiku and senryu are comprised of only 3 lines with each line being a specific number of syllables in length
Line 1: 5 Syllables
Line 2: 7 Syllables
Line 3: 5 Syllables
The following is one of Matsuo Basho's famous haikus:
Temple bells die out.
The fragrant blossoms remain.
A perfect evening!
Due to their history Senryu are perfect for breakup poems as below:
"Hello again." Click!
"Still love you." Click! "Please call." Click!
Do not hassle us!
As this excerpt from an article written by Karen Bellamy shows; haiku and senryu are perfect for "touchy-feely" writing:
"... Now whilst the haiku in its finest form is an exquisite piece of distilled art, you will find it is not too difficult to write haikus of a lesser standard that are still good to read. The 17 syllable limitation really helps when you have difficulty in writing 'feelings' because you have to discard the non-essential words and just focus on the really important ones ..."
For the full article: Journaling From The Heart With Haiku
For Karen's blog: Scraps Of Mind
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