Yes and no. Haiku, as Americanized, is 17 syllables (it's not syllables in Japanese, it's something to do with the number and type of stresses) and can be about anything, as long as it's 5-7-5. Senryu have 17 or fewer syllables.
In traditional Haiku, it is about nature. Kind of like Sonnets are traditionally about love. My recollection of Senryu are that they are traditionally like very, very short sitcoms: something that speaks to a specific scene or concept, but that could be about anybody and is often ironic. So, yeah. For the haiku battle, we were doing Americanized stuff. If I were trying to write Haiku, I might write about the heat and dry outside, or twist it a little and write about the nature of all things digital. OK. Shutting up now. --BenD Ian Skinner wrote: > I am going to stick to simple prose, and I know this may not be the > ultimate authority. But according to Wikipedia Senryu have the same > number of sounds (usually syllables) but has 'kigo' and is not about nature. > > "However, 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 serious. Senryū do not need to include a /kigo > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kigo>/, or season > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season> word, like haiku." > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senryu] > > With that short description, I think the entire 'Haiku' battle has > actually been a Senryu battle since to do not recall any that are about > nature or any kigo's, but I'm not sure I would recognize one of them. > > The article goes on to talk about modern free form Haiku and it sound > like there may be little distinction between a free form Kaiku and a Senryu. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade to ColdFusion 8 and integrate with Adobe Flex http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJP Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:243341 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
