Featuring cherita!


March 16, 2018

Poetry Friday--Haibun

Over the course of the six weeks of the 6th Annual February Daily Poetry Project (it includes the warm-up of the week before and the cool-down of the week after February), I found myself writing in a variety of forms--from haiku to cherita to limericks to a form new to me, the "Skinny." I also wrote three haibun. A haibun is a prose piece combined with haiku. Here are two, the third, "The Stuff(ing) of Angelic Bears," can be found on Donna Smith's blog from last week.


"The Tall White Sun" (1917) by Charles Burchfield. Photo taken by Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Whitney Museum of American Art.
The King's Pines

In the 1500s the British explored the seas by way of multi-masted sailing ships built with native pines.  The forests of the British Isles were stripped, and only centuries' time could replenish shipbuilders' supplies.  Exploration led to exploitation of the natural resources of other lands.  And thus, the colonies of New Hampshire and Maine, with their massive old growth Eastern White Pines, were destined to suffer economic, political, and ecological consequences.  The King's men came to the region to mark trees, selected for British masts, with three hatchet cuts known as the "King's Broad Arrow."  The citizens of New England had to work around the King's Pines, and, be subject to fines and punishment if they harvested any of them.  In 1734 a group of New Hampshire citizens fought back in what was, at the time, called, "The Mast Tree Riot."

child's plastic boat
on an artificial pond
...fog continues

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

The second haibun was inspired by a work titled, "Moon Song," by batik artist, Lisa Telling Kattenbraker.


© Lisa Telling Kattenbraker.

On a Full Moon Night

It was after the war and their families never prospered during those postwar boom years.  They were the poorest of river rats amongst the small city's river rats--the best friends, though, that a boy could have.

On warm, full moon nights, two or three of them would head down to the bay carrying a bushel basket between them.  A home-made-net-on-a-broomstick sat on each one's shoulder.  They waded into the shallows where hard-shell crabs scurried through the eel grass.  They believed the full moon had powers to draw the creatures to the surface.  But, in truth, the light from the moon simply made their mossy-green, flattened bodies more visible.

The boys would scoop crabs from the water and toss them into the basket.  They were divided equally at the end of the night.  At home his mother waited with a pot of boiling water at the ready. 

On a handful of nights each year he would eat like a king.

That was long ago, and far away...

Sometimes, though, on full moon nights he'll take the big boat's dinghy and drift through the shallows.

corporate dinner
king crab legs for the taking
he takes chicken

© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

If you're looking for the Poetry Friday Round-Up, you'll find Linda's hosting at Teacher Dance.


14 comments:

  1. I loved them when I first read them, and now, too, Diane. Giving the prose background leaves room for an interesting response in haiku, an opinion to consider. It was great fun in February, wasn't it? Thanks, Diane. Stay warm and cozy!

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    1. I did enjoy writing every day during the challenge period, but, I'm also glad to be finished. It can easily become an obsession!

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  2. Diane, I'm in awe of your haibun poems, especially the prose poem in each. So well crafted! February was fun and challenging. I had to drop out for the cool down portion, but I did make the 28 days, writing every day.

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    1. A string of twenty-eight poems is a mighty accomplishment--good for you!

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  3. Diane, I am enthralled with haibuns you created. Your crafting of each is wonderful, especially the prose lead-up. I am interested in trying this format so can you give me some tips on where to begin. The February challenge was so much fun. I am happy to have completed the challenge with a couple of warm-ups and follow-ups.

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    1. There's a guidelines sheet available from the Haiku Society here that you might want to check out. It always helps to read haibun, which you can do in online journals such as Haibun Today. Everyone writes a little differently, but what I try to do is to write a haiku that isn't directly related to the prose portion, but instead takes the reader somewhere else only to end up in the same place. For example, in the first piece, I talk about ecological destruction during the colonial era and then, in the haiku, I've moved forward 300 years, only to show we're following yet another path toward ecological destruction. Have fun!

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    2. Thanks for this....I’m wowed by your beautiful work and have the same questions as Carol.

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  4. Awesome haibun, Diane. Love the interplay between the prose and the haiku. Especially love the second one. :)

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    1. I like the second one too, because it takes me back to my childhood. I have vague memories of my father taking us out at night and coming home with a bunch of crabs in a bushel basket. The haibun is almost wholly an imagined piece.

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  5. I'm so glad I get to enjoy these a second time with space to breathe on their own. February was a great month of writing together!

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  6. I like the history and citizens taking their stand in "The King's Pines" l story/haibun, and I like the humor coming in the last line of the second haibun, "he takes chicken."
    Thanks Diane!

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  7. The contrast between the prose and haiku parts of your two haibun is stunning!

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  8. I do love your haibun, and thank you for the link to more. I've spent a bit of time there now, just reading. I wanted to try a haibun for a haibun...

    What's a haibun? I wondered. There didn't seem to be a clearcut way for me to follow any rules to writing one. How can you write without rules? I read more. The first two or three I read, I just didn't get, so didn't like. Then the wonderful December Visitor one. Yes, that one I could see. Funny even. The next five or six began to make sense to me. There was no real rule. Maybe that was the good thing about them. I wondered if they were harder to write than they looked. You can only tell by writing one.

    Gate hinges creak
    Fenced thoughts spill on open ground
    Dandelions grow

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    1. Posted this and your links on my site today:
      http://mainelywrite.blogspot.com/2018/03/haibun-for-haibun.html

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