Haiku and Senryu Poetry

A monk once asked his Master, “No matter what lies ahead, what is the Way?”  The Master quickly replied, “The Way is your daily life.”  This concept is at the very center of the Way of Zen.  The principles that govern the Way are directed toward all of our existence, not just to the part that takes place in the meditation hall.  The challenge of Zen is to meet each day, each moment with a clear mind and a cleansed spirit, so that moment to moment union with existence becomes the highest teaching.

Haiku is like a vortex of energy, a haiku moment is a moment of absolute intensity in which the poet’s grasp of his intuition is complete and the image he describes lives its own life.  The art of haiku is to frame reality in a single instant that will lock the poet and the reader into sharing the same experience.  It is this thunderbolt-like encounter that has made haiku the poetry of Zen – it is the voicing of those moments that cannot be described in prose or logic.  This poetic form has breathing beauty and a moving elusive quality – reading it increases our sense of tranquility and joy.

When we happen to see a beautiful sunset or lovely flowers we are often so delighted that we merely stand still.  This state of mind might be called “ah-ness” as we, the beholder, can only give a one-breath-long exclamation of delight:  “Ah!”  (One breath is about 17 syllables long).  The object has seized us, we are being held, and we are aware only of the shapes, the colors, the shadows, and the blendings.  In a brief moment we see a pattern, a significance we had not seen before.  Haiku poetry is a rendering of an experience, not a comment upon it.  Every word in a haiku, rather than contributing to the meaning, like words do in a novel or sonnet, is an experience.

                        Covered with flowers                                               A single petal

                        Instantly I’d like to die                                    Of the cherry blossom fell:

                        In this dream of ours!                                          Mountain silence.

                        Not knowing why                                                       Confined within doors

            I feel attached to this world                                  A priest is warming himself

             Where we come only to die.                                           Burning a Buddha statue.

Haiku and senryu are unrhymed miniature poems that record the essence of a keenly observed or recalled moment.

A haiku consists of 17 syllables in 3 phrases of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables.

Haiku and senryu are structurally similar but differ in content.

§         Haiku are objective and address natural/seasonal events

§         Senryu are concerned with human subjective situations (both interpersonal and intrapersonal); senryu are often satiric, pathetic, or ironic

Aspects of haiku/senryu poetry:

§         Awareness/insight: a mode of enlightenment…an awareness beyond the intellect

• Haiku is not in the business of trying to discover totally new things, but in perceiving things in a totally new way

• Example:                                centenarian

   3-month old great granddaughter

exchange toothless smiles

§         Genuineness: Haiku and senryu should not result from idiosyncrasies but from inner genuineness

• Example:                                     side-by-side

eighth grade boys, ninth grade women

            sit miles, years apart

§         “Here and Now” experiencing: living in the moment and in a state of deep, ongoing awareness

• Example:                                senior prom night –

strapless gown laid out on bed

            next to teddy bears

§         Interdependence of events: haiku can indicate, usually by aesthetic juxtaposition of seemingly disparate entities, the interdependent relation of all phenomena…no entity exists solely in its own right (including one’s own beloved self).  The haiku, senryu writer unconceals, makes manifest, the heretofore hidden relation of entities with each other, and ultimately of our relations with them – and with the world.

• Example:                                stunned fiancé –

     her gown’s price tag

            has a comma

§         Humor:  Senryu poets often employ humor when addressing the irony, absurdity, and pathos of everyday life.  Indeed, the last line of a senryu often has a comic “kick,” akin to the punch line of a joke.  The humor is gentle, never caustic or mean-spirited.

• Example:                                in mourning…

     his refrigerator filled

      with homemade pies

§         Parsimony: A haiku poet eliminates the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.  A genuine haiku or senryu neither lacks anything nor has anything in excess.

The above is drawn from:

§         “West meets East: Processes and Outcomes of Psychotherapy and Haiku/Senryu Poetry” by Robert H. Deluty, Journal of Poetry Therapy, Vol. 15, 4, Summer 2002

§         Haiku – the Poetry of Zen, Edited by Manuela Dunn Mascetti, Hyperion, New York, 1996.

Catherine Haynes, M.S., LMFT, 206-854-7333 catherine@catherinehaynes.com ~ www.catherinehaynes.com