hosts: Firdaus Parvez & Kala Ramesh
A Thursday Feature.
poet of the month: Ludmila Balabanova
25th January 2024
Ludmila Balabanova is a computer engineer and has a Ph.D. in literature. Her books include nine collections of poetry (four of them haiku and haibun books) and a book of criticism on haiku (Haiku: A Dragonfly under the Hat. The Power of the Unsaid, 2014). She is the editor of the Bulgarian Haiku Anthologies Mirrors (101 Bulgarian Haiku selected and edited by Ludmila Balabanova, 2005, Bulgarian, English and French) and Tuning up the Violins (2022, Bulgarian, English).
Her works have been published in several journals and featured in over 40 anthologies worldwide. Her most important awards are Basho’s 360th Anniversary Haiku Award, Japan, 2004; Touchstone Distinguished Books Award Honorable Mention, 2016 for her haiku book Dewdrops on the Weeds; Touchstone Distinguished Book Award, Winner and HSA Merit Book Award for her collection of haibun, Sunflower Field (Zhanet, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 2019); HSA Haiku Anthology Award Honorable Mention for Tuning up the Violins. She currently lives in Sofia, Bulgaria
You can read about her views on haibun, here:
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THG: 6. Many writers bank on experience to write, but eventually, a writer has to create
something outside of it too... Any thoughts or advice?
LB:
First, imagination is very important for a writer. In addition to writer‘s own experience, he or she also perceives the experience of other people – parents, relatives, friends... If he or she is a sensitive person, and every writer should be, he or she will imagine how someone would feel in their situation. And of course, reading is very important. Not only writers, every person draws experience from life, but also from the books he or she reads.
THG:
7. And lastly, do you show your work in progress to anyone, or is it a solitary art that you
keep close to your chest before letting it go for publication? LB:
I never used to share my drafts with anyone, and I’ve never been part of any haibun or haiku
writing group. But nowadays there are many opportunities to learn. Talent also includes a special sensitivity that helps you to learn from others. It is useful to read the advice of good haibun authors, and it is essential to read their haibun. I also think a good editor with his or her experience can be very helpful even to a very good author. I have submitted very few haibun and have probably been very lucky because almost all of them have been accepted for publication, sometimes with some suggestions for changes (mostly linguistic remarks, because writing in a foreign language is not the same as in the native language). I’ve received wonderful feedback from editors, especially from Charles Trumbull and Paul Miller at Modern Haiku and Rich Youmans at Contemporary Haibun Online.
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Wind
After the autumn fires which burned down the green cathedral of the summer, before the
white flag of the winter…
leaf fall
my love let’s see Venice
before it sinks
Modern Haiku, vol. 49.3, Autumn 2018.
High Lake
The mountain is not the same after we see it on the path. We know there are poisonous
snakes, but it is very different to see it – shiny in the early sunbeams. It is not a mountain
anymore but a mountain with a poisonous snake on it.
We keep going up. We pass through deep forests, through meadows with beautiful
flowers. Nobody mentions the snake but we are all staring at the path. At the end of the day we climb above the tree line. Here there are no forests, no flowers, no snakes. Only a lake reflecting the sky.
equinox…
at sunset shadows lay down
to rest
Modern Haiku, vol. 42.3, Autumn 2011.
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Prompt
The Buddha said there is a lot of connection between the mind and the body, and his meditation technique - Vipassana - was to still the mind by minutely following the sensations that run through the body.
We end this month with two beautiful haibun from Ludmila. The mind playing on the 'snake seen on the path' is arresting and we've all experienced this in various other ways.
Fear and the preservation of the 'I' goes hand in hand. Waiting to read your haibun and the way you've understood this strong emotion.
Haibun outside this prompt is welcome too
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Important: Since we're swamped with submissions, and our editors are only human, mistakes can happen. Please, please, remember to put your name, followed by your country, below each poem, even after revisions. It helps our editors; they won't have to type it in, saving them from potential typos. Thanks a ton!
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PLEASE NOTE:
1. Only two haibun per poet per prompt. Please put your name and country of residence under your poem, it makes the editors' work easier. Thanks.
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. When poets give suggestions and if you agree to them - post your final edited version on top of your original version.
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 the haikuKATHA monthly journal.