FOUR HAIKU – ONE STORY

The sun’s open arms 
Embrace the emerging day
Seeking lost sunbeams

Clutching at ripe fruit
Ever hoping to regain
Spent and mislaid strength

Hopeless task to set
Once spent never recovered
Now feeding our homes

Caught by our panels
Sustained by the human race
Lost to Mother Earth

The pen & wash sketches are by WHB  (aka Roland).  In order they are of …


Top:  South Bishop Lighthouse, Pembrokeshire, Wales (1993);
Centre:  An English Dawn . . . (1991)
Bottom:  Lamlash and Holy Isle, Isle of Arran, Firth of Clyde, Scotland … (2001)

SENRYU #3: Friendship

Continuing my own experimentations with a variety of different verse forms, here is my further attempt at a SENRYU . . .

Photo by mododeolhar on Pexels.com

Senryū is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction: three lines with 17 morae (syllables). Senryū tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and senryū are often cynical or darkly humorous while haiku are more serious. Wikipedia

FRIENDSHIP

Rejoice in friendship
Brotherly love always wins
Over self and pride.

SENRYU #2: Success

Senryū is a Japanese form of short poetry similar to haiku in construction: three lines with 17 morae (syllables). Senryū tend to be about human foibles while haiku tend to be about nature, and senryū are often cynical or darkly humorous while haiku are more serious. Wikipedia

Continuing my own experimentations with a variety of different verse forms, here is my second attempt at a SENRYU . . .

SUCCESS

A fear of failure
Stifles resolve and stunts growth.
Face up to success.

Three Haiku for a Closing Year

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November’s shadow
Casts a long and murky pall
Over a dark year.

December grows near,
Promising a silent end
To a stolen year.

Only spring brings hope,
And within its welcome arms,
The warmth of rebirth.

A Pi-Ku for Pi-Day

Pi rainbow colored circle

Tomorrow, 14th March, is Pi Day.  It has become an occasion for the annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (pi).  It is also the birthday of Albert Einstein in – actually in 1879.

Based on the Japanese POETIC FORM of the HAIKU, where the 3 lines have syllable counts of 5,7,5, a new poetic form has in recent years been designed of the PI-Ku.

In a Pi-Ku each line of the poem has, in sequence, the number of syllables in the never-ending number — pi   –  that mysterious mathematical relationship between a circle’s diameter and its circumference . . .

π  =  3.14159265 35897932384626433832795028841971693993751058 . . .

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In its basic form the Pi-ku will normally have just 3 lines – of 3, 1, and 4 syllables. However, as a development of this, it is possible to extend the number of lines with syllables following the Pi sequence, stopping wherever it is wished. To continue for ever would be a somewhat tedious exercise!

With a pi-ku, therefore, the first line has three syllables, the second line one syllable, and the third line has four syllables. Although without formal punctuation, each line should end in a terminal caesura which helps to retain the sense of the poem’s content. There is no specification on the subject matter.

For those interested, a web search for ‘Pi Day’ and/or ‘Pi-ku’ will give more ideas and examples.

I give two 9-line (3.14159265) attempts of my own at this exercise below . . .

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Consider
Think
Let us compose
Now
Some poetic lines
Ones which clearly convey their meaning
To all
Setting out the purpose
Of this exercise


 

Talk to me
Speak
In your own words
Now
I want to hear you
Spilling your everyday musings
To me
So that I may reflect
On what our love means

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