The other day I woke up very early. At the time I felt pretty good, so I decided to stay up. I was proud of myself for getting a head-start on the day.

Boy, did I pay for that later....

As the day went on, I found it increasingly difficult to focus and eventually to stay awake; if I sat down for even a moment, I started to nod off. As I snapped to for the umpteenth time, I made a mental note to go back to sleep the next time I wake up early.

Just as the haiku I posted a few days ago, this could be considered a senryū. Whereas haiku primarily focus on nature, senryū focus instead on human folly.

Haiku originated as hokku, the first verse of haikai no renga, a crude, comic form of renga that was popular with the common folk (proper renga was very much a game of the aristocracy). In some sense, that puts the spirit of senryū closer to those first haiku poems than haiku itself.

David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku.

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