Definitions of literary forms vary of course and many gray areas exist. This is as it should be, in my opinion, with art. True art knows no boundaries. Nonetheless, some conventional definitions help frame our understanding. Currently, there is a review and recommendation for changes in these definitions by the Haiku Society of America (HSA). See http://www.hsa-haiku.org/
haiku: 1: An unrhymed Japanese poem recording the essence of a moment keenly perceived, in which Nature is linked to human nature. It usually consists of seventeen onji.
2: A foreign adaptation of 1, usually written in three lines totalling fewer than seventeen syllables.
(From every issue of Frogpond (http://www.hsa-haiku.org/)
Examples:
personal effects
the scent
of the cedar chest
w.f. owen
(Frogpond XXVII, No. 2, 2004)
spring
flipping the comforter to
a lighter shade of blue
Yvonne Cabalona
(A New Resonance 3: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku, Red Moon Press, Winchester, VA
22504-1661, 2001, Eds. Jim Kacian and Dee Evetts).
senryu: 1: A Japanese poem structurally similar to the Japanese haiku but primarily concerned with human nature;
often humorous or satiric.
2: A foreign adaptation of 1.
(From every issue of Frogpond (http://www.hsa-haiku.org/)
Examples:
sunny day
the tiny hole
in her black stockings
Yvonne Cabalona
(A New Resonance 3: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku, Red Moon Press, Winchester, VA
22504-1661, 2001, Eds. Jim Kacian and Dee Evetts).
divorced
she cleans the ring
around the tub
w.f. owen
(1st Place Brady Senryu Contest, 2002)
haibun: "a sort of verbal collage that contains passages of prose combined with haiku" (Lee Gurga, Haiku: A Poet's Guide, Lincoln. Illinois: Modern Haiku Press, 2003).
Example:
Mumblety-peg
The pocketknife lands in the black Texas mud just beyond his foot. In this game called “split,” we take turns throwing a knife outside our friend’s position. He stretches a leg out to the knife, pulls it from the ground, then takes his throw. The first person to fall while stretching loses. This Yankee kid named Ed stretches out, loses his balance, then falls to the hoots and howls of my buddies. Keeping with tradition, I wipe my blade clean on his clothes. From New York, Ed talks funny--he calls our knife game “mumblety-peg”--but he has a nice Case pocketknife and turns out to be our high school’s best football player. After a while, we got used to his northern accent.
September sky
hearing that a friend
was in the first tower
w.f. owen
(Modern Haiku, 35:3, page 92, 2004)
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