THE HAIBUN GALLERY: 8th May 2025. Linda Papanicolaou - Guest Editor

hosts: Shalini Pattabiraman, Vidya Shankar, Firdaus Parvez and Kala Ramesh

mentor: Lorraine Haig

A Thursday Feature

8th May 2025

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT BELOW

THE HAIBUN GALLERY  May 2025 - Linda Papanicolaou 

Prompt 1- 2nd 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 8

This week we have a choice of linking manners: place (sono ba), season (jisetsu), or time of day (jibun). Another highly recommended resource for improving your haibun-writing skills is Roberta Beary, Lew Watts, and Rich Youmans’ 2023 Haibun: A Writer’s Guide. The authors talk about renku linking, offering thoughts on the differences, and what they call the “delicate dance” of good haibun linking (Chapter 1, pp. 9-10). Chapter 4 has a section “Haiku…How it Works …” with examples in which the same prose paragraph is paired with different haiku that link to it in different ways (pp. 37-40). Three of their examples follow the commonest format for haibun—prose then haiku—but the first example opens with the haiku, as an introduction or scene setter for the prose that follows. This is a good arrangement for when your prose wants to end with a punch line or closure of narrative that doesn’t offer an opening for the haiku to link. An example from my own work is “Summer Sublet,” (Triveni Haibun Gallery May 2024).

The exercise is to write a haibun that begins with a scene-setting haiku, followed by prose. The manner of linking may be your choice of place, season, or time of day. When you post your own haibun, please say your choice and explain why you chose it.

******** Linda,

Just beautiful. 

It's so apt. 

We'll all try to write according to your guidelines. 

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

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. 

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The Haibun Gallery continues as is.

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