Grook

A grook (Template:Langx) is a form of short aphoristic poem or rhyming aphorism created by the Danish poet, designer, inventor, and scientist Piet Hein. He wrote over 7,000 of them from 1939 until his death in 1996, mostly in DanishTemplate:Refn. The grooks are multi-faceted and characterized by irony, paradox, brevity, precise use of language, rhythm and rhyme, and an often satiric nature. Many of the grooks have an accompanying line drawing, which provides additional meaning.

Some say that the name "gruk" is short for "grin & suk" (Template:Lit), but Piet Hein said he felt that the word had come out of thin air.Template:Cn The contemporary "Hunden Grog" ("Grog the Dog") stories by fellow cartoonist Storm P. have, in public opinion, been regarded as an inspiration.Template:Cn

Grooks as passive resistance

Piet Hein was president of the Anti-Nazi Union when the Germans invaded Denmark in 1940.Template:Refn He became an underground passive resister. He found a way to encourage resistance through the use of poems, which he called "gruks" ("grooks" in English), and began publishing them in the daily newspaper "Politiken" under the pseudonym "Kumbel Kumbell"Template:Refn.

Grooks in English

Beginning in the 1960s, seven volumes of English translations of 53 grooks each (all translated by Jens Arup) were published and became popularTemplate:Cn in the U.S. counterculture of the time:

• Grooks (1966)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Grooks 2 (1968)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Grooks 3 (1970)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Grooks 4 (1972)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Grooks 5 (1973)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Grooks VI (1978)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Grooks VII (1984)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Template:As of, Piet Hein and/or his estate have also published the following books of grooks:<ref name="PH.com">Template:Cite web</ref>

• Collected Grooks I (2002)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Collected Grooks II (2002)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Runaway Runes: Short Grooks I<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
• Viking Vistas: Short Grooks II<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

External links

• Template:Cite magazine
• Grooks – Leptonica
• Grooks
• Grooks in English by Piet Hein
• Poetry Soup- Grook poems