Hello. Welcome to Haibun Monday. This is Frank Hubeny and the Haibun theme is silent sounds. These are all those thoughts and chatter that go through our minds which seem like words that have a sound, but do not require ears to hear them.

Sometimes they are prayers or mantras one recites often enough to not really be aware one is doing so. Sometimes they are concerns or things people have said that keep coming back to mind.

Sometimes I wish I could get these things out of my mind, but they don’t cooperate. Sometimes they are the source of inspiration and I want them to be right where they are.

Sometimes these silent sounds offer good advice about what I should or shouldn’t do. Often I realize it was good advice only after I don’t take it, but getting such advice at all makes me wonder where it comes from?

Anyway, the theme for this Haibun Monday is anything to do with this internal chatter, what I call silent sounds, used however you are motivated to use it.  The form to use is a haibun–prose that contains somewhere within it a haiku.

I am no haibun expert although I enjoy writing them. If you want examples as well as a place to possibly publish some of your own haibun consider Contemporary Haibun Online and Haibun Today. I am grateful to Thomas Chockley whom I met at an Illinois State Poetry Society workshop for the references to these two online publications.  Here’s one of his haibun, “Daguerreotype“.  Frank J. Tassone also has haibun in these two publications. If you know of any other places where haibun are accepted for publication, let me know in the comments below.

To participate in this prompt, write a haibun on your blog. Copy the link to that post and paste it in the Mister Linky below. You will see others who have linked their haibun. See what they are sharing. That is how we get to know each other. Refresh the Mister Linky later in the week to see who else has added a link. The Mister Linky will be open until this Sunday at 3PM EST.