Snafu Senryu Winners

Dana Crandell’s ‘Hand Stamp’, the winner of our Snafu Senryu Challenge, brings humor and a thoughtful, original idea to our theme. How to convey that awkward moment in seventeen syllables, neatly dispersed over three lines? The delight of this challenge is that form and content seem perfectly matched: no one wants to linger too long over these embarrassing moments (to say the least!) and yet we can’t help giving them space in our minds. Why not make good use of that space and turn anxiety into art?

In second place comes Sydney Chapman’s sequence of senryus, Alone / Together: A Collection. Not only does the author meditate and develop the idea of the schema, the neat use of the words alone / together to consider the tension between our virtual lives and our real lives. There’s a real sense of a life lived in these brief lines.

Some lovely runners-up for us. A little bit of Thanksgiving amusement in Kristen Balyeat’s "i swear."; Jessica Dowding’s fist-bump in "Why I Use Curbside Pickup" makes us think of the times we felt lonely and perhaps — couldn’t bring ourselves to say. Jen Parkhill ‘JP’ brings their stylish language and swift storytelling to ‘Tuesday Morning" — hashtag #heartbreak. These quick poems are such great inspiration for creativity: where will your ideas take you next? No need to be embarrassed by that desire to put pen to paper again…

You can check out the full list of winners HERE and learn about our current challenges below: