Art by Edward Tryk

SENRYU

Senryu is a form of classical Japanese poetry that is very similar in form to Haiku. Both brief three line poems, the first line having five syllables, the middle line having seven, and the third having five. Haiku traditionally deal with seasonal, natural phenomena. The tone is serious. Senryu, on the other hand, are more likely to examine human events, often in a satirical or humorous way. In these poems, the poet feels free to show off his or her wit. Actually, there is fuzzy blur that represents to difference between the two poetic forms, both in the Japanese literature and in modern adaptations in English.

13.	MY GRANDSON Stumbling giant child, searching, touching everything- dummy 'phone is dialed

14.	HOMAGE TO T. S. ELIOT ³ Women come and go, pulling lilacs from the ground- Michelangelo!

19.	OWED TO DALI Swallows make a dash; nostrils flair in April's air- Dali's long mustache

19a.	HAIKU CATALOG I Haiku catalog- jumping, splashing, plopping still; loving Bashö's frog

19b.	BASHO'S FROG II Silent polliwog; gone the tail-sprouting legs- now he's Bashö's frog

20.	HOMAGE TO PICASSO ⁵ Bidding Art a cruel farewell; jagged breasts and criss-crossed eyes- Pablo's Demoiselles

21.	HOMAGE TO DUCHAMP ⁶ Now 'tis all a fad: descending nude and broken Glass- Dada's ornery dad

22.	TO A CUT FINGER Rose bud vase gives way; Finger sliced by shard of glass- No more work today!

25.	HOMAGE TO AARON NIMZOWITSCH ⁸ Hypermodern tea; bishop, scone and marmalade- "Pawn to King-Knight three"

26.	HOMAGE TO TIGER WOODS Sammy, Ben and Gene- Tiger, Tiger, dynamite; picked their pockets clean

29.	HOMAGE TO EINSTEIN "e" he wrote with flair- "relatively speaking, equals em cee square"

31.	HOMAGE TO MY WIFE-TO-BE Right up front she sits; lots of leg (and ankle too)-- blows my mind to bits

This haiku refers to two of Eliot's finest poems. The Wasteland begins,
"April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land,"
And in the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, there is the recurring couplet,
"And in the room, the women come and go
Talking of Michelengelo" [

]

I am referring here to Picasso's remarkable painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907). Art historians inform us that this painting marks the shift in Western art from realism to cubism -- and from Art as it had always been, to Modern Art. In the painting, Picasso portrays these women with various degrees of distortion; some parts quite traditional and other parts frankly cubist. [ ]

From the mind of Marcel Duchamp came the seeds of many of the movements in modern art, including Dada, Futurism, Cubism, Op, and Pop. The haiku refers to two of his most celebrated works: Nude Descending a Staircase (anticipating Futurism) and The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even (1912) or called simply "The Glass".
The title of the work is "The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even". The "Glass" is a collection of mechanical shapes cut from metal foil, sandwiched between two panes of glass. When this work was being shipped to an American art museum for display, the workmen dropped it. The glass shattered into many pieces. Apparently, Duchamp was delighted. He spent ten years painstakingly reassembling all of the shards into its original form. He then said, "At last the work is complete". The "Glass" is now on permanent display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. [ ]

Aaron Nimzowitsch was World Champion and Grand Master in chess, who in the early twentieth century introduced a revolutionary approach to the game. This reorientation to chess was called "hypermodern". Often a game was begun by moving pieces other than the standard King and Queen pawns. [ ]

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