The following senryu are three-line poems focused on human nature as opposed to haiku, which focus on the natural world. They have been put into single lines to save space. Each individual senryu line is separated by a comma.<\/p>\n
Ukraine on My Brain – Headline Senryu<\/strong><\/p>\n Some headline senryus, Kyiv and Bucha, in today\u2019s news *The flag of Kyiv shows the patron saint of Kyiv, Archangel Michael,\u00a0holding a flaming sword in his right hand and an oval shield with a cross on it in his left.<\/em><\/p>\n A short poem now by a living Irish American poet. Kay Ryan was U.S. Poet Laureate from 2008 to 2010. She is the first openly gay female poet laureate. She taught in community colleges for many years. Ryan has won many awards, fellowships and prizes, including a National Humanities Award from President Barack Obama and a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on April 18, 2011.<\/p>\n Crocodile Tears<\/strong> \u201cCrocodile tears\u201d is a false, insincere display of emotion such as a hypocrite\u00a0crying fake tears of grief. The phrase derives\u00a0from an ancient belief that crocodiles shed tears while consuming their prey, and as such is present in many modern languages.<\/em><\/p>\n Joey ‘Pepe Batbon’ Connolly (Special to the Saipan Tribune)<\/strong> The following senryu are three-line poems focused on human nature as opposed to haiku, which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":355846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,16617,13843,772],"class_list":["post-366296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-cnmi","tag-national-poetry-month","tag-pepe-batbon","tag-ukraine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nArmies of Putin, still murdering and shootin\u2019, Kyiv people leave
\nRussian soldiers left, potato vodka bottles, empty and bereft
\nBurned tanks today, Molotov cocktails thrown, fire works its way
\nBoozing and bombing, bottles before and after, leave no laughter
\nPutin\u2019s spring rain falls, fire flies from the sky, Mariupol massacre
\nInto Ukraine, Western donations flow, Putin\u2019s army on the go
\nAcross Ukraine, too many dead, many footprints\u00a0in the snow
\nSunflower painting, St. Michael\u2019s* flag above, Ukraine bleeds
\nPutin\u2019s bloody stain, only dead explain, Ukraine on my brain.<\/p>\n
\nThe one sincere crocodile
\nhas gone dry eyed for years
\nwhy bother crying
\ncrocodile tears.<\/p>\n
\nJoey aka Pepe Batbon is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is a sonnet practitioner who enjoys stargazing.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"