THE HAIBUN GALLERY : 12 May — a Thursday feature

hosts: Shobhana Kumar and Kala Ramesh

12th May

This month we'll be showcasing haibun written by Harriot West

Here is our second offering from Harriot West’s vast repertoire.

The Way Things Were

There she is on eBay—the doll mother never let me have—poor Barbie, dismissed in the house where I grew up as cheap, not for the plastic she was made of but for her perky in-your-face breasts.

sepia shadows

a young girl tugs

at her tee shirt

Previously published in Haibun Today 6:3

Here is another haibun from Harriot West. In the commentary on her second book, Shades of Absence, Ray Ramussen in this article below, writes of her remarkable ability to write powerful, short haibun. Brevity is an art that haijin are perhaps adept at mastering, but haibuneers like Harriot West have made the art of succinct writing stand out.

https://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/chohtmlarchive/pages142/Article_Rasmussen_West_Shades.html

Here are some more links to her work:

http://haibuntoday.com/ht91/a_Woodward_West.html

Until One Day I Said Enough: Harriot West on Haibun, an interview by Jeffrey Woodward in Haibun Today (Volume 9, Number 1, March 2015)

http://haibuntoday.com/ht84/a_Rasmussen_West.html

Harriot West and Minimalist Haibun by Ray Rasmussen in Haibun Today (Volume 8, Number 4, December 2014)

For this week, we invite you to espouse the case of brevity. Eschew elaborate mentions. Try to see what you can do with limited words. How much can you say in how little? PLEASE NOTE:

1. Only two haibun per poet per prompt.

2. Share your best-polished pieces.

3. Please do not post something in a hurry or something you have just written.

Let it simmer for a while.

4. Post your final edited version on top of your original verse.

5. Don't forget to give feedback on others' poems. We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished haibun (within 300 words) to be considered for inclusion in haikuKATHA monthly journal.