Hello everyone!    We got Toni (Kanzen Sakura) here to be our guest host for Haibun Monday.  

Toni (Kanzen Sakura) here to prompt you for Haibun Monday.  It has been awhile since I gave out a prompt so I am keeping it simple.

I would like you all to write a haibun about what/who inspired you to write poetry.  I would like you to give us your age and other circumstances.  For example, I wrote my first haiku at the age of six, inspired by a neighbor/friend who was a professor of Asian Studies at Duke University.  But now we come to the next part:  what poet influenced or still influences you?  What was it about that poet that grabbed your interest?  What were the circumstances?  I was eleven and the Viet Nam War was in full throes.  I started writing anit-war poems.  The next year, my grandmother handed me several books of poetry to keep me amused during the boring summer:  T.S.Eliot, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman.  My professor friend provided a book of Basho.

But the why is the most difficult part.  Why do you write poetry?  Do you write from anger?  Do you write from love or sadness or from being abused or having a difficult childhood?  Or a good childhood?  I write because I cannot be silent.  I must write.  Of course, I also write from nature taking snapshots of the moment (haiku).

So – give us a brief haibun – one to two paragraphs and end it with a haiku – a classic haiku which has a seasonal reference, an interchangeable first and third lines.  You may even start your haibun with a haiku as well as ending it.  Remember:  Haibun are not fiction and are written in first person.  They are a true and factual accounting of an event in your life or a season, such as the Vernal Equinox, which is today.  Give us your best – after all, you are writing about your poetry.  If you want, you may also include details as to the style of poetry you write.  I don’t want a bunch of big words, obscure reasons, or metaphysical thoughts.  I want it plain and simple:

– why/who inspired you to write poetry?

– what is your style?

– why do you write poetry?

To play along, please write and post your haibun on your website and link it up on Mr. Linky.  Also, please provide a link back to dVerse so others may find their way here.  Spring is coming, slowly but surely although we are getting snow on Monday and Tuesday.  Fun stuff, hey?  Also be sure you visit the other poets linked on Mr. Linky and read and comment on their poems, even if they don’t read and comment yours first.

Come on, let’s play!