THE HAIBUN GALLERY: 22nd May 2025. Linda Papanicolaou - Guest Editor
- Kala Ramesh
- May 22
- 3 min read
Updated: May 25
host: Rupa Anand
mentor: Lorraine Haig editors on haikuKATHA: Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh
A Thursday Feature
22nd May 2025
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT BELOW
THE HAIBUN GALLERY May 2025 - Linda Papanicolaou
Prompt 4th week
PROMPTS for MAY 2025
Linda Papanicolaou, US
INTRODUCTION
Sometimes you’ll see the linking of prose and haiku in haibun called “renku-like.” I first learned of it from Bruce Ross’ 2001 essay "Narratives of the Heart". Immediately intrigued, I set out to study renku linking.
Too often you’ll see it said that haibun prose and poem should “scent link” (Basho’s way). I’ve never been satisfied with vague directives that leave you on your own to figure it out. Intuition is certainly important, but I’ve come to believe that a good part of linking is a craft that can be learned. One article I found invaluable was Tadashi Kondo and William B Higginson‘s “Link and Shift: A Practical Guide to Renku Composition”, online at Renku Home. In their section “Types of Linking,” the authors survey verse linking from its early days to its development by Basho and his followers. Most—even all—of these ways of linking can also be used for prose/poem linking in haibun.
This month, our weekly prompts will be skill-building exercises based on a selection of the “Manners of Linking” described by Kondo and Higginson. As you write, explore different solutions to the problem. When you post your final version, please also include a short explanation of your decision process. Also, when giving feedback to others, please focus on the linking.
MAY 22
Chapter 5 in Beary, Watts, and Youmans’ Haibun: A Writer’s Guide includes a section on haibun with more than one haiku and haiku sequences. In this kind of longer composition, interspersing haiku within the prose can vary the pace by creating pauses for reflection. Haiku sequences can build and deepen. Whether the pattern is prose/haiku/prose, haiku/prose/haiku, prose/haiku/haiku/haiku/, etc., the haibun’s multiple parts create a renku-like situation where keeping readers engaged depends on variety, pacing, and forward progression.
One way of testing each part to make sure it’s pulling its weight is to analyze how you’ve constructed the linking. By way of an example, last August I posted one titled “Detour” in Triveni Haibun Gallery. It has one haiku between two prose passages, followed by a series of three haiku that link on season, place, person, and some we haven’t looked at: echo (Hibiki) or transfer/reflection (Utsuri), and run-on” (Hashiri).
For this week’s exercise, write a longer haibun with multiple prose passages and haiku. Use any of the linking methods you find in Kondo and Higginson. Write intuitively, following what your gut instinct tells you the poem wants to be. But then, before you post your final version, reflect on how your linking works and why. This is where the real learning is. When you do post your haibun, please tell us the what and why of your choices.
******** Linda,
Once again a very good prompt and challenge.
Thank you so much for giving us such good prompts.
We'll all try to write according to your guidelines.
Thank you so much.
_kala
******
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
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: https://forms.gle/xUEiiDR9wd2dgqtR9 only during the submission period.
********
The Haibun Gallery continues as is.
We will be having editors and prompts, and your sharing…
#1, revised, 29/05
What's Next?
hard rains
the slippery slipper
tweets
I walk through the meandering streets of Trivandrum and i don't mind climbing the ups and downs.
I wade through the glossy autumn leaves and mossy tiles as the dirt seeps inbetween my toes and I don't mind.
I slip for a second; I pause, i steady myself, my heart sinks in, I don't mind.
My hands search vigorously for the umbrella inside my cloth bag, stops for a minute, forgotten?? Never Mind!
The rains lavishly spread on my face as my kumkum drips on my nose, I don't mind.
chai pe chatterboxes
the red-whiskered bulbuls
depart
My cellphone rings and by the time I pick it up, it…
# 2 - 27/05/25
Footsteps in Time
We see the stone of an ancient structure bang in the middle of dense forest. Then stop, park our vehicles at a clearing and breathe in the tenth-century effulgence of a Shiva temple called Neelkanth.
Up steep steps, my eyes naturally shut to the sharp afternoon sun. The cool Shiva-linga in the temple sanctum seems to reassure. A priest puts a red tilak on our foreheads. We incant a stuti in His name & praise.
spring wind
the awakening murmur
of a prayer
Note: Neelkanth temple, a 6th - 9th century CE Hindu temple in Alwar district, Rajasthan, India, is located deep in forest heartland.
Dear Haibuneers,
Starting from March 2025, we at haikuKATHA have moved to a new format for haibun and gembun submissions.
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
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 haibun and/or gembun should be sent through our Google form, which will open on 1st June.
Haibun 1 - 25/05/2025
It’s been ages since I posted something here:
Deja vu
The river runs smooth, with the overhanging mountains in the distance. Smoke curls into the sky to the cries of cliff swallows as they fall and rise. The wind slams the door shut behind me as I exit the river-facing flat to step out.
people wander —
a boy and a girl arm-in-arm
silhouetted
I duck beneath the crimson bougainvillea but a thorny branch gets entangled in my hair. The others shout to come quickly for hot chai. I disentangle and walk swiftly towards them, thorns and blossoms waving dangerously from my hand. It catches the edge of a passerby’s sari, she smiles and removes…
Amazing prompts by Linda. Food for thought & for writing. Many thanks.