Hello! Welcome to the first Haibun Monday of 2016. Toni (Kanzensakura) here behind the bar today. I am so very pleased to be able to present the first haibun prompt for the year. The picture is of my ages old flowering quince taken a couple of years ago. It is the earliest blooming of my flowering bushes and bloomed so early, it caught a late, heavy snow. Some of you are aware of my love of snow and winter. Yuki no hana refers to snow flowers (a term for a quality of snowflakes or, flowers blooming in the snow).

Like everyone else, I made a New Year’s resolution. Since this refers to haibun, I will share it with you. I am a perpetual student of Japanese poetic forms, constantly studying, reading, delving, etc. If you go back to the first Haibun Monday for d’Verse, you will find the haibun evolved from Matsuo Basho’s travelogue he kept and the haiku interspersed among the prose portion of his travels. One of our Pub Tenders, Grace, has a blog titled, “Everyday Amazing”. That basically is the key to Basho’s travelogue. Being a true master of haiku, he took great pleasure in the small details, the amazing details, the seasonal details and used them in his travelogue. Basically, his original haibun could be equated to “prose haiku”. I am not a journal keeper but have resolved to keep a journal based on his original travelogue. “Oku no Hosomichi” (The Narrow Road to the Deep North).

I hope you will seek this out and read – luminous prose and elegant haiku. One does not have to be Japanese or speak Japanese to write wonderful haibun. In keeping this journal, I will be using one or more of these key terms. Of course, none of these are required but based on several writing guides, both educational and from Haibun/Haiku or Japanese Poetry societies, these will be helpful in guiding my future haibun and I hope will give you all a new way to think when writing your own haibun; more layers and nuance, so to speak. I hope these concepts will help you or give you a different perspective when writing haibun.

aware — the quality of certain objects to evoke longing, sadness, or immediate sympathy. The Japanese believed some objects, especially in nature, always possess aware. Writers should try to find the aware inherent in a scene they are observing for their haibun.
fueki — the sense of some eternal truth that poets strive to convey in their works. In English, this may be understood as a theme. The theme should look to separate what is simply observed from what is significant to a general audience, what message can be derived from the observation, and capture the latter element.
fuga— true art. The Japanese strive to elevate the content of their writings to an art form and incorporate the artistic elements introduced.
fugetsu — natural scenery, which the Japanese considered essential to any form of art. They strive to find the element of nature or the natural scenery around them to weave into their haibun accounts as the anchor for their message. If the scene being considered for the haibun does not contain natural scenery, writers often introduce fugetsu through metaphoric comparisons.
kaketoba — the use of words which have double meanings. In Japanese this is very easy because most nouns also have another meaning as a verb. Examples in English include leaves: to go away/foliage; blossom: to grow up/flower; fall: take a tumble/autumn. These pivot words can act as the kireji in the haiku or the haibun.

So today, I would like you all to write a haibun based on the photograph. Please use the compact haibun form for this: one or two tight paragraphs with one haiku, in fewer than 200 words. The photograph will be used in your post. I ask only that you make note of the caption below the photograph and also add “Used by permission”.

• Write a compact haibun and post it to your site/blog.
• Enter a link to your poem and your name by clicking Mr Linky below. You have 7 days to post after the link goes
• You will find links to other poets. Read and comment on other poet’s work. This is what makes this such a creative
  community.
• Keep in mind that others may have posted after you, so do check back on the linky page for details.
• Promote your work on social media. You may use the tag #dversepoets and we will share you as well.
• Have fun and keep warm!