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Haiku and Senryu: A Book of Short Shorts
by jacob erin-cilberto
36 Poems ~ 34 pages
Price: $10.00
Publisher: Praying Mantis Press
ISBN #: 97988770929569
To Order: Amazon
Reviewed by Michael Escoubas
How often do we say, “I’ve changed my mind,” about a topic or issue? Not often, I suspect. Until now, I have never been enthusiastic about the shorter poetic forms. “They’re too short to make any sense,” I thought. “I must work too hard to figure out the meaning of these poetry ‘brainteasers.’ ” Turns out, I was just lazy!
As I worked my way through this thin volume, I came to realize how important these (specifically haiku and senryu) forms are to poetry and to a sharpened understanding of who I am as a person.
I came to understand that even though I have much to learn, all I needed was an increased desire to learn. Jacob erin-cilberto’s Haiku and Senryu You has rewarded me richly for my time-investment in his book.
Let’s start with the basics: Haiku poets take nature and often a specific season as their key element or primary focus. Senryu (pronounced Send-ru) poets use elements of “human nature” to dramatize the anomalies of life. While there are exceptions to the simplistic description, suffice to say that haiku and senryu spring from the heart. They touch a range of emotions and cause readers to look deeply into life–they “capture the moment.”
For example, this gem returned me to numerous teenage “crushes” that occupied my youth:
love is a clipped wing
crawling across a rainbow
the colors limping
“Clipped wing” captures how I felt, in real time, during my most vulnerable years.
Haiku #205 put me close enough to salt the tail of a robin grazing the soft earth in springtime:
in a robin’s eye
a glint of recognition
thwarts the worm’s progress
While erin-cilberto is technically perfect using the traditional 5/7/5 syllable count for haiku, he is not a slave to form. He delights in breaking free:
A ripe light
unveil secrets
the moon is silent
but illumination a telltale sign
divulging the shadows
that whisper on a night’s
murmuring breeze
I like this provocative standout because it illustrates both the objective and the subject dimensions of poetry. Sources of light are in play, but erin-cilberto leaves room, in the reader’s mind, for subjective application. The moon, while silent, nevertheless has something to say or to suggest about life. What is the moon whispering on night’s murmuring breeze?
The two poems below feature a nod to intimacy, one from the human perspective, the other rooted in nature:
shrewd surmise
able entrapment
the first kiss corners
the second garners
embattled surrender
crystalized moon
sleet sheets
frozen exercise
in love
there is only movement
of imagined caress
In the poem entitled, “senryu on site,” the first line announces the time of day, line 2 reveals the theme, line 3 provides the aha moment which is designed to capture the reader’s imagination:
in the still of the night
archeological find
the bones of a poem
My mind congers many a night spent “unearthing” the poetic “site,” brushing away “debris” to finally reveal the “skeleton” of my poem. Once I get to that point in the “dig” I feel empowered to add flesh to the bones.
Without a doubt, Jacob erin-cilberto’s Haiku and Senryu You, has awakened me to the happy truth that the oriental forms are indispensable to a well-rounded poetry experience. I close with a haiku of my own:
springtime’s emerging
blossoms bring on summertime’s
braggadocio
Thank you, jacob erin-cilberto, for opening up the haiku world to this late bloomer!
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