Poetry Form - The Haibun.
In his How To Haiku, Bruce Ross writes:
|
"If a haiku is an insight into a moment of experience,
a haibun
is the story or narrative of how one came to have that experience."
|
Robert D. Wilson, editor of the e-magazine Simply Haiku,
includes these features for a haibun:
- "a linked form. The link is between narrative, prose sections and
one or more haiku."
- wide range of styles and content.
- minimal repetition of words and phrases;
"what is
written is tightly constructed".
- strong haiku that can stand alone as poetry.
- "Haiku ...
relate to previous prose sections yet not be an extension of the prose. The
oblique but relevant association between haiku and prose is the defining
moment of the haibun. ... The haiku link offers readers a springboard to multiple, and often
unexpected, meanings."
Haibun: Haikai Prose
by Beth Vieira
|
"Like haiku, haibun begins in the everyday events of the author's life.
These events occur as minute particulars of object, person, place, action.
The author recognizes that these events connect with others in the fabric of time and literature,
and weaves a pattern demonstrating this connection.
And if this writing is to be truly haibun, the author does this with a striking economy of language,
without any unnecessary grammar, so that each word carries rich layers of meaning."
|
So writes William J. Higginson in a chapter pointedly called "Living - Not Emoting" in his
The Haiku Handbook (Kodansha, 1985).
Haibun is haikai prose, dense and terse, punctuated by haiku, either at the end or throughout.
The prose resonates with the poetry but does not repeat it or explain it.
The mixture of prose and poetry is somewhat foreign to our [Western] conceptions of literature,
but it was a common form in Japanese literature.
Basho's Narrow Road to the Interior is a nikki, or travel journal, written as haibun.
And it is a world classic containing some of his better known haiku.
In English Gary Snyder and Jack Kerouac experimented with the haibun format and other writers have followed suit.
A detailed account of current experiments with the form can be found in Bruce Ross's
Journey to the Interior: American Versions of Haibun (Tuttle, 1998).
His introduction goes into great detail about the aesthetics of the form.
The remainder of the volume contains examples of haibun as varied as one can imagine,
from a water spider (Hal Roth) to the death of an infant (William M. Ramsey).
Haibun as a form is in transition and still being developed.
One well-known example is vincent trippi's Haiku Pond: A trace of the trail...
and Thoreau (1987), a spiritual meditation on Walden.
A lesser known example is Hal Roth's Behind the Fireflies (1982),
in which he juxtaposes Civil War letters and history with haiku composed at the Antietam National Battlefield.
The variety and pliability of the form makes it one of the most exciting in the haikai repertoire.
Haibun Sample
by Beth Vieira
|
She Says
She says she knows tantra, as I peel off the label on my beer.
Shaved head and a leather jacket, I kick my Doc Martens into the linoleum.
She reaches out to rub my stubble.
I feel my hip bones in baggy jeans poke out above the straps of my black bikini.
The room grows warm and noisy.
She calls me "turtle" for the necked out head and armored shell.
She eyes my fingers.
I stop picking at the silver paper on the bottle.
crowded party
though we stand apart
our shadows touch
We move across the floor, as if dancing to unplayed music.
There is a doorway. The fact of a doorway.
Inside the saffron light of Tibetan robes, sheets thrown across a cotton futon.
I eye her hands. She says she knows tantra.
Published in Contemporary Haibun Online, vol. 2, no. 2 (June 2006):
http://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/pages22/Beth_Vieira.html
|
More Haibun locations
recommended by Beth Vieira
Haibun Revision Checklist
by J. Zimmerman.
Is this a strong haibun, or:
- Would another form, such as
Haiku,
Rengay, or
Tanka,
be more suitable?
- Is there a meaningful contrast in prose style and poetic style, or has the prose
become too poetic or the haiku too prose-like?
- Does the prose or the poem alone conveys your meaning?
Does the poem simply reiterate some of the prose?
- Does the title extend your meaning?
Or does it simply reiterate some of the prose or poem?
- Can the piece be more concise? Or is more needed?
Other Books on Haiku.
|
The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa
edited by Robert Hass.
The past-poet laureate of the U.S.A has compiled this enthralling collection of
his own essays in which he summarizes the lives of three masters and inventors
of the haiku tradition in Japan:
- Matsuo Basho (1644-94), the ascetic and seeker,
- Yosa Buson (1716-83), the artist, and
- Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), the humanist.
He presents their lives, their prose, and 300 of their poems.
|
|
The Haiku Seasons: Poetry of the Natural World
by William J. Higginson.
|
|
Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac
by William J. Higginson, Meagan Calogeras (Editor)
|
|
The Japanese Haiku, by Kenneth Yasuda.
|
|
Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku
by William J. Higginson, William S. Higginson.
|
|
An Introduction to Haiku: An Anthology of Poems and Poets from Basho to Shiki
by Harold Gould Henderson (Editor).
First published in 1958, it analyzes the development of
Japanese haiku under the leadership of Basho, Buson, Issa, and Shiki.
Includes the Romanized ("Romaji")
transliterization of the original Japanese, indicating the sounds of the
original poem. Henderson translate mainly into 5-7-5 syllables
(heavy compared to the 5-7-5 of the quick Japanese onji)
and rhymes the first and last lines (sometimes feels a bit forced).
|
[Thanks for visiting.]
Essay and haibun
Copyright
© 2004-2006 by Beth Vieira.
The remainder
Copyright
© 2004-2008 by J. Zimmerman.
This page displayed using your recycled bits.
|
Yuki Teikei Haiku Society:
New books on writing poetry.
