I’ve never written a haibun and could not remember what the context was of
writing one, although I know I’ve read several from my poetry peers. As I was
looking for some poetry form to try to encapsulate our recent trip to Maine,
the word haibun popped into my mind. (I must have remembered something about
this form, as it seemed a perfect fit for some of the observations, I made
about the natural settings in Maine’s Acadia National Park and the state’s
rocky coast.)
Poets.org
offers a nice synopsis of the form but not enough examples of how the prose and
haiku work together. They espoused how the two writing forms work together to
form a haibun but not enough examples of actual writings. This is just my opinion
of course, but it sent me looking elsewhere.
Now that I have an idea of form and an idea from which part of my trip, I’ll
focus on the haibun, I need to read some more specific examples other than
the famous ancient poet Basho.
Here are some sources I checked:
Writer’s Digest Poetic Forms: Haibun Poems
Poetry Soup: Haibun Poems/Haibun Examples
Haibun by Contemporary Writer’s a compilation by Ray Rasmussen
While I am very sure my haibun will not turn out as I wish or will be very
palatable to others, I am going to try nonetheless. Here goes:
Life: The Wonderland Trail in Acadia
Traversing the trail, we encountered dense woods of birch, craggy pitch pines,
and fungi. It could be a trail anywhere in a temperate deciduous forest, except
towards the end when daylight was seen more acutely, and gentle surf heard. An opening led us onto a giant sea of smoothly flattened granite boulders with pink inclusions dancing in the bright sunlight and stopping at the ocean’s edge. Most fascinating of all were the tide pools. Water caught in areas of rock as the tide shifted in and out over eons of days became life’s microcosm with plants, tiny hermit crabs, and invisible life we could only hope to see.
Forest Life Surrounds Until Ocean Waves Break Through Tide pool life abounds
© Draft, Carol Labuzzetta, 2022 The inspiration for this post came from our recent trip to Maine, encompassing three days in Acadia National Park and two at Moosehead Lake in Greenville. Maine surrounds one in nature, it is everywhere you look and served as great inspiration for writing. Our travels there were detailed in posts that I made to my Medium.com site. You can view them there by clicking on this link or just seaching my name on the site. I hope you do check them out. Thank you! And, finally, today is Poetry Friday! Our host for the roundup is the talented Rose at her blog Imagine the Possibilities. Thanks for hosting, Rose!
The Apples in My Orchard 
I read some of your medium posts, Carol. And then your sharing today showed such a fabulous vacation. How great that you researched & wrote a haibun. It feels right to me but I admit I’m not an expert. I’ve never been in the area you were but have explored tide pools, mostly in the Caribbean and the Sea of Cortez. They are amazing!
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Linda, Thanks so much for your comments. I like the Haibun form but was very unsure of what I was doing. Still, I think it’ll pass for a first effort. I am going to try more. We are looking at going to the Carribean in the winter but now with all the storms…we’re going to wait to see what happens. Tide Pools are cool, I agree!
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Gorgeous photos! I love haibun. Such a great way to capture a travel experience.
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Marcie, Thank you! I found I really like the form – because I like/love words! Sometimes a haiku or even other poetry is too short for me! I like prose.
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Hooray! You’ve done it–written a beautiful haibun. One year, I wrote a haibun each day for the month of February. It was challenging and fun and I got into the groove of it. I really like how you go from the sweeping mountains to those miraculous tiny tide pools. That’s exactly what haibun can do. Bravo!
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Linda, Wow! You wrote a haibun for 28 days! That’s incredible! Maybe I’ll feel up to that challenge by the middle of winter! We’ll see! Thanks!
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The tidal pool photo is such a mix of flow and color that you captured in your prose poem. I enjoyed your haiku as well. I shared a haibun today and continue to try to improve upon the format each time I try a new one.
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Hi Carol. I have to go back to your post and look for your haibun. I remember reading all the goodness you had in the post but cannot recall the haibun. I do think its a form that I’ll need practice with and since I love travel and nature, it’s a good fit for me! Thanks for stopping by!
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Your post took me to memories of a long ago trip to Acadia and experiencing a tidepool in California. Your descriptions are beautiful and helped me experience the wonder that you saw. I’ve tried a haibun a few times. It certainly is an interesting form, and I think you nailed it.
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Thank you so much, Rose! And, thank you, again, for hosting! I truly appreciate your comments!
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Beautiful images and words, Carol. I am inspired to try the form and even more, inspired to visit Maine!
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Hi Patricia! Maine was beautiful. We enjoyed all that nature has to offer there. I don’t know if we’ll ever get back (since we lived in the midwest) but there’ll be more to see if we do! Thanks for your comments!
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I love the way the parts of this Haibun work together – forest meeting ocean, forest teeming with life, tide pools teeming with life. The way you have crafted it made me feel like I was right there with you, discovering it all. Wonderful!
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Thank you Marilyn! I tried to recall what I saw and used that to craft the poem. I’m glad you enjoyed it!
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Oh, Acadia is on my bucket list. What a fabulous combination of words and images, as interdependent as life itself.
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You should definitely plan to get there. It’s amazing! I hope you can visit it someday!
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