Haibun - From one-bun to monobun to longer pieces of prose with haiku writing and Journeys 2015 in at no. 7 in Amazon Hot New Releases

photo by Alan Summers 2015      

Available Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Journeys-2015-Anthology-International-Haibun/dp/1515359875/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1473772150&sr=8-1&keywords=Journeys+2015 

I feel tremendously privileged to be in this haibun anthology expertly edited by Dr Angelee Deodhar.

These three haibun are not in the anthology because I want you to buy the book and see what selections were made of my work. 

These three monobun written by me are published in Blithe Spirit, Journal of the British Haiku Society.  

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One-bun  (idea and name created by Jim Kacian):
where i leave off waar ik ophoud 
one-line haiku and haibun éénregelige haiku en haibun 
Jim Kacian
https://www.thehaikufoundation.org/omeka/files/original/7e0f3dafee3546b56aa7cc773e5803be.pdf

Although enticing, I decided to create either single line prose, or single paragraph prose, often incomplete, followed by a three-line haiku rather than a monoku (1-line haiku). The following three are my first monobun, and straight after are three more, this time published by Human/Kind journal.


Here are my monobun (created by Alan Summers in 2015)

Sippin’

       

this single malt I handwarm so gently letting go…

peat smoke–

one more angel’s share

of handcrafted whisky

N.B. 

The "Angels' Share” is the amount of alcohol (around 2%) that evaporates normally from oak casks.  Whisky producers once thought it was angels taking a small sip before the whisky was matured for bottling.

Alan Summers

Blithe Spirit Vol. 25 issue 2 (2015)

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80 gsm

        

probably copier paper that became creased and stained not just with tears, but grief, forced through finger pores…

her sweet tooth-

Dear John letters

stuffed in a box

Alan Summers

Blithe Spirit Vol. 25 issue 2 (2015)

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Blackbird singing

   

and a long long walk to be brain-tired out to avoid the internal black dog and survive each footfall at a time

boys fishing 

a pointillism of raindrops

dotting the river

Alan Summers

Blithe Spirit Vol. 25 issue 2 (2015)

Three monobun (over two issues) of Human/Kind journal:
https://www.humankindjournal.org/contrib_alan_summers/category/monobunonebun


Here's one published back in March 2019:

the uncertainity principle…

is something that haunts so many of us just starting out on life, hovering just beyond the periphery of parental constraints, where we fly or fall on a single smile, and…

blustering wind 

does she really love me 

dandelion?

after Heisenberg

Human/Kind ISSUE 1.5 - ALAN SUMMERS 5/3/2019
https://www.humankindjournal.org/contrib_alan_summers/issue-15-alan-summers


To see the other two monobun in Human/Kind journal:
https://www.humankindjournal.org/contrib_alan_summers/issue-16-alan-summers

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A longer haibun with eleven haiku appeared in the November issue of Blithe Spirit:
http://area17.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-beat-is-back-haibun-prose-and-haiku.html 

Do please consider a Call of the Page course or one-to-one feed if haibun fascinates you: https://www.callofthepage.org/learning/

Haibun - the practise of interspersing prose writing with haiku, are prose pieces in numerous styles from journalistic writing, diary entries, prose poetry, long fiction through to flash fiction, that usually include one or more haiku within the body of prose or starting or concluding a body of prose.

THE HISTORY OF HAIBUN

In 1689, the famous poet Matsuo Bashō (known to some as the "Shakespeare of Japan") travelled to the northern provinces of Honshu (Japan's largest island, home to Tokyo and Kyoto and other major cities).

He wrote a travel diary, called Oko No Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) in which he wrote haikai verses (the precursors to haiku) as well as prose text.

Here is an extract, in fact it's the opening pages:

The days and months are travelers of eternity, just like the years that come and go. For those who pass their lives afloat on boats, or face old age leading horses tight by the bridle, their journeying

is life, their journeying is home. And many are the men of old who met their end upon the road.

How long ago, I wonder, did I see a drift of cloud borne away upon the wind, and ceaseless dreams of wandering become aroused? Only last year, I had been wandering along the coasts and bays; and in the autumn, I swept away the cobwebs from my tumbledown hut on the banks of the Sumida and soon afterwards saw the old year out. But when the spring mists rose up into the sky, the gods of desire possessed me, and burned my mind with the longing to go beyond the barrier at Shirakawa. 

The spirits of the road beckoned me, and I could not concentrate on anything. So I patched up my trousers, put new cords in my straw hat, and strengthened my knees with moxa. A vision of the moon at Matsushima was already in my mind. I sold my hut and wrote this just before moving to a cottage owned by Sampū:

even this grass hut

could for the new owner be

a festive house of dolls

This was the first of an eight verse sequence, which I left hanging on a post inside the hut.

It was the twenty-seventh day of the Third Month [16 May]. There was a wan, thinning moon, and in the first pale light of dawn, the summit of Mount Fuji could be dimly seen. I wondered if I should ever see the cherry trees of Ueno and Yanaka again. My closest friends, who had gathered together the night before, got on the boat to see me off. We disembarked at Senju, and my heart

was overwhelmed by the prospect of the vast journey ahead. Ephemeral though I know the world to be, when I stood at the crossroads of parting, I wept goodbye.

the spring is passing –

the birds all mourn and fishes'

eyes are wet with tears

I wrote this verse to begin my travel diary, and then we started off, though it was hard to proceed. Behind, my friends were standing in a row, as if to watch till we were lost to sight.

So that year – the second year of Genroku [1689] – I had suddenly taken it into my head to make the long journey into the deep north, to see with my own eyes places that I had only heard about,

despite hardships enough to turn my hair white. I should be lucky to come back alive, but I staked my fortune on that uncertain hope.

With The Narrow Road to the Deep North, the haibun form reached an early pinnacle, and this work is acknowledged as important world literature today.

Check out: http://apdl.kcc.hawaii.edu/roads/oku_annotated_text1.html 

ONLINE COURSES IN HAIBUN

If you are interested in an online internet course on haibun we will run the course again later in 2017.

Please don't hesitate to contact Karen at:

admin@callofthepage.org

Karen will be delighted to send you details about the course. 

warm regards,

Alan