THE HAIBUN GALLERY: 12th June 2025. Diana Webb - Guest Poet

host: Rupa Anand

mentor: Lorraine Haig editors on haikuKATHA: Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh Guest Poet: Diana Webb

A Thursday Feature

12th June 2025

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT BELOW

THE HAIBUN GALLERY  June 2025 - Diana Webb

Prompt 2ndweek

PROMPTS for June 2025

Diana Webb

The Universal Child 

She clutches a rolled blanket in one hand and clings to her mother with the other. The mother struggles with a bulging bag. Behind them, smoke stains the sky. Just one more day in the life of the universal child. Syria, Sudan and Ukraine . A queue for food, a burned-out car, a plastic tent. In my day, as I am old enough to say, it was the Biafra famine, Vietnam. We never learn, and this year's child is next year's soldier.

soft toy

lies in the gutter

- eyes stare at the sky

Simon Wilson 

The Haibun Journal 6:2

Prompt

In the above piece, it is the haiku that transforms a paragraph of prose into a haibun. It transforms what may hover on the boundary of polemic and prose poem into both what is now not only a haibun but undoubtedly a poem, in which for me it is that last line that truly clinches it and gives the writing the potential to transform the views and actions of the reader.

Here is the dedication of a painting by the Victorian artist G F Watts, which depicts an angel weeping over a bird that has been killed:

'To all who love the beautiful and mourn over the senseless and cruel destruction of bird life and beauty.'

Write a haibun using the above as the template for a dedication for a haibun, substituting some of the words with your own and come up with a piece in which the haiku not only transforms a piece of prose to a haibun but also transforms a possible polemic into a poem with the power to transform a reader's attitude by the way it tugs at their heart strings.

******** Diana,

Once again a beautiful prompt and challenge. Looking forward to your month. 

Thank you so much.

_kala

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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT NOTICE

              NOTICE

Dear Haibuneers

Starting from March 2025, we at haikuKATHA are moving on to a new submissions format for haibun submissions. (Only for haibun, please note!)

Writers are invited to submit one unpublished haibun per submission window.

Kindly note the submissions calendar.

1-20 March, to be considered for publication in May

1-20 June, to be considered for publication in August Here's the link to the Google Form dedicated to this submission.

https://forms.gle/Ma2WWWtCYLedAmvY7

1-20 September, to be considered for publication in November

1-20 December, to be considered for publication in February

All accepted submissions will receive an email to confirm their acceptance by the 5th day of the publication month.

Your unpublished (only one) haibun should be sent to: 

The Google link will be given in this space soon. This form will open only during the submission period. 

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The Haibun Gallery continues as is.

We will be having editors and prompts, and your sharing…