Below are the three poems that I wrote for the Katakana literary work. It seems that Senryu is a fairly flexible form of poetry as the number of syllables is not necessarily fixed. Each poem below represents a different season and the things that I associate with it. However, the specific season is never stated and readers are free to conjure their own thoughts about the relationship between the words. While the poems certainly direct the reader's thoughts to a particular season, each particular word might provoke its own association that is independent or the rest of the poem.
サンタン
スウィミング
バカンス
Suntan
Swimming
Vacation
シードル
トルコ
フットボール
Cider
Turkey
Football
クリスマス
バリ
ホットチョコレート
Christmas
Burr
Hot Chocolate
In each poem I chose words that evoke feelings or memories of the seasons that the poem as a whole is based around.
ReplyDeleteIn the first poem, suntan, swimming and vacation are some of the first things that come to my mind when I think of summer. Summer is a carefree time when your only worry is not getting burned by the sun when you are hanging out at the beach. For that reason the first poem reads: Suntan; Swimming; Vacation.
In the second poem I was thinking of Fall. As a kid my family and I would always go apple picking and drink apple cider at the orchard. That's why the poem starts with the word "cider." Other than apple picking, Thanksgiving is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Fall. For that reason, the poem closes with the words "turkey" and "football."
The final poem is based around Winter. For many people, although not necessarily for me, Christmas is synonymous with Winter. That's why I chose to start the poem with Christmas. To me, nothing says Winter more than staying warm with a cup of hot chocolate, hence the final two lines of the poem, "Burr" and "Hot Chocolate."
I really like your idea of writing one poem for each of the seasons. Though I can't help but wondering what happened for spring? =)
ReplyDeleteYou used katakana for all the words in the poems. Any special reason for doing so? I would guess it could be for emphasizing the "borrowed" cultural influence (such as "football" and "Christmas"). But what about "swmming" and "vacation"?
As a side not, November = football!? NICE! =)
I think it is nice that you use katakana from loan words to evoke images. Why do you use katakana only? Also, perhaps to improve, katakana I think can be used more creatively to evoke images and experiences.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting how these poems are purely katakana, but I agree with PNUT that integrating hiragana would allow for more creativity. Your poems definitely provoked imagery though (I'm looking forward to cider, turkey, and football during this vacation!)
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting that you chose to write everything in katakana, even when it may not be necessary to use a loanword (like vacation). You picked good words to capture the feeling of each season. It would be nice to write a poem for spring, too!
ReplyDeleteなつやすみは まだですか？ Your use of katakana really brings out the imagery in each poem. It's also interesting that you used katakana for all of them. It grabs the reader's attention more.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely write one for spring. That would be very interesting. これのかいたときはおもしろかった。
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