1/11/2011

Urban Haiku and Senryu

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Urban Haiku and Senryu

Many poets live in the big cities all over our world and write about their daily life, sometimes haiku, sometimes senryu.
It is quite possible to find a lot of the changing seasons within an urban life, once you start paying attention.

The collection of season words from Nairobi, Kenya, is quite astonishing. Once the haiku poets get used to observe their surroundings with keen eyes, they find the gems.


City Scenes from the whole world.


Please click on the LINKS given for individual poets to read their collections.


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URBAN HAIKU AND MORE
Haiku, Senryu, Hay(Na)Ku and Other
Unrhymed Tercet Poetry
by Patricia Carragon






Wrecking Ball and Other Urban Haiku
Barry George






Contemporary Urban Haiku
Fred Simmons






by Anonymouslee4u



MORE
. Reference .



Suburban Haiku : Peyton Price

Many readers have asked, "Are you my neighbor?" The answer is yes, yes she is. She's the one counting to seventeen on her fingers, grabbing her smartphone, and furtively checking to make sure you can't read the screen.
source : www.suburbanhaiku.com


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external link

. Urban Haiku — Michael Dylan Welch



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Worldwide use



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Things found on the way


Haruo Shirane wrote :

Senryu, as it evolved in Japan in the latter half of the eighteenth century, when it blossomed into an independent form, was heavily satirical, poking fun at contemporary manners and human foibles. English-language haiku magazines have established a distinction between the two forms, of haiku and senryu, in which those poems associated with nature are placed in the haiku category and those with non-natural subjects in the senryu category.

According to the Haiku Society of America, haiku is the "essence of a movement keenly perceived in which nature is linked to human nature". Senryu, by contrast, is "primarily concerned with human nature; often humorous or satiric". While this definition of English-language senryu is appropriate, that for English-language haiku, which tends, by nature, to overlap with senryu, seems too limited.

One consequence of a narrower definition of haiku is that English-language anthologies of haiku are overwhelmingly set in country or natural settings even though ninety percent of the haiku poets actually live in urban environments. To exaggerate the situation, North American haiku poets are given the alternative of either writing serious poetry on nature (defined as haiku) or of writing humorous poetry on non-nature topics (defined as senryu). This would seem to discourage haiku poets from writing serious poetry on the immediate urban environment or broader social issues. Topics such as subways, commuter driving, movie theaters, shopping malls, etc., while falling outside of the traditional notion of nature, in fact provide some of the richest sources for modern haiku, as much recent English-language haiku has revealed, and should be considered part of nature in the broadest sense.

For this reason I am now editing a volume of New York or urban haiku, which, according to the narrow definition of haiku, would often be discouraged or disqualified, but which, in my mind, represents the original spirit of Japanese haikai in focusing on the immediate physical environment. Projects such as Dee Evett's "Haiku on 42nd Street", in which he presented urban haiku on empty movie theatre marquees in Times Square, are, in this regard, both innovative and inspiring. "

-- Haruo Shirane, Beyond the Haiku Moment:
Basho, Buson and Modern Haiku Myths,
first published in Modern Haiku, XXXI:1 (winter-spring 2000)


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HAIKU and SENRYU



. India - a large, rich region  


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Kamakura, Japan

by Gabi Greve
Summer 1990


鎌倉や観光客の夏の陣
Kamakura ya kankookyaku no natsu no jin

Oh Kamakura !
the "Battle of Summer"
of the tourists


. Kamakura

Osaka natsu no jin, the Summer Battle of Osaka
was a famous siege in Japanese history.


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London, England

. Alan Summers



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Los Angeles, California, USA

. Don Baird



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Manila, Philippines

 . Willie, Wilfredo R. Bongcaron



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. Nairobi City, Kenya   
The Haiku Clubs of Kenya




New Delhi, India

. Semi Urban Haiku
Vidur Jyoti
 




New York, USA


. Bill Kenney, haiku-usa


. Fred Masarani, Red Dog



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Phoenix, AZ, USA

. John Daleiden  


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Toronto, Canada

. Chen-ou Liu  


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Tokyo, Japan


良寛忌 東京駅で 友を待つ
Ryookan ki Tookyoo eki de tomo o mastu

Ryokan Memorial Day -
waiting for friends
at Tokyo station

Gabi Greve, 1994

Ryokan Memorial Day (Ryookan ki)


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Yemen

Heike Gewi





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A letter from a friend:

"These urban sections are important as too many people think haiku are nature poems rather than short form poetry with a season keyword or phrase.

When people think "nature" they often mean sentimental Victorian era type greeting card nature statements, rather from a wildlife or Natural History perspective, or from a historic hokku and haiku aspect.

Kigo can be as effectively incorporated into some urban haiku (though not all) as it can from a solely urban perspective. "




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Related words


*****. Bridges (hashi) and Haiku  



***** . Place Names used in Haiku  





. WKD - LIST of haiku topics and Keywords  

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