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From My Commonplace Book - 57

Blog entry posted by Merry, Feb 19, 2012.

Nine Senryu by Nine Japanese Women


Running down the giraffe's neck the orgasm

- Seino Chisato


Deeper deeper into the night OO atop the waves

- Ito Masajo


Savage love's what I want I say smokestacks

- Tokizane Shinko


Though hugging each other my back suddenly feels cold

- Mayumi Akiko


The snow's falling the snow's falling these two breasts

- Kuwano Akiko


Walking side by side the warmth on the side where you are

- Oishi Tsuruku


Having a lover unbutton me early summer

- Matsuda Kyomi


Love is when the peach quietly goes on ripening

- Hasegawa Hiroke


When vermilion peonies collapse I hug fire

- Onishi Yasuyo


Although senryu is a short poetry form similar to haiku, with three lines and less than seventeen syllables, the translator, Hiroaki Sato, chose to format each poem as one long line. Senryu focuses on people and is often humorous while haiku is usually about nature. Bareku is the term for erotic senryu.

The poems above are from Japanese Women Poets: An Anthology.
Merry, Feb 19, 2012
 
Merry

About the Author

Long, long ago I was an English major.
  1. Merry
    That's sweet, Cort. Thank you.
    Merry, Feb 22, 2012
  2. Cort
    Makes me realize how poetry can jerk me out of my everyday existence as few things can. :)

    Thank Merry and Rydra
    Cort, Feb 22, 2012
  3. Merry
    Thank you, Enid.
    Merry, Feb 22, 2012
  4. Enid
    I much enjoy the haiku Merryy - a little bit past the erotic (age ?) - but much enjoy the sweetness of the others.
    Enid, Feb 21, 2012
  5. Merry
    Hi, rydra_wong.

    Thanks so much for contributing the exceptionally lovely and clever haiku, including one of your own. I like your simile: "wet tires sounding/ like sticky paint rollers."
    Merry, Feb 20, 2012
  6. rydra_wong
    I like Haiku as I like nature. Issa is one of my favorites:

    The turnip farmer rose
    and with a fresh-
    pulled turnip . . .
    Pointed to my road

    This one I relate to, as I sleep with 10 cats:

    I must turn over . . .
    beware of local
    earthquakes
    Bedfellow cricket!

    I often observed this of flies that landed on he rim of our backyard pool:

    Oh do not swat them . . .
    unhappy flies
    forever
    Wringing their thin hands

    On the death of his child:

    Dew evaporates
    and all our world
    is dew . . . So dear,
    So fresh, so fleeting

    Reflected
    in the dragonfly's eye
    mountains.

    There are other lovely haiku by him but I can't fin dthem online.

    the cool breeze
    fills the emptiness of heaven
    with the voice of pine trees

    ~ Onitsura

    Here's one I wrote (we Americns are not too slavish with the 5-7-9 rule):

    Autumn night drizzle
    Cars swishing past
    wet tires sounding
    like sticky paint rollers.
    rydra_wong, Feb 20, 2012