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Hi everyone!  We are pleased to have Frank J. Tassone as our guest pub host for this week’s Haibun Monday.

Good Afternoon, Poets! Frank J. Tassone here, hosting this week’s Haibun Monday. For those that don’t know, haibun is a form of Japanese poetry that combines prose, or prose poetry, with haiku. And what better topic could there be today for a haibun than Hiroshima Day 2018?

That’s right! Today marks the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. And the city of Hiroshima will once again hold its annual Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony:

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony is held each year on August 6th, the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. Some 50,000 local citizens and visitors, as well as ambassadors and dignitaries from around 70 countries, gather here to console the spirits of those killed by the atomic bomb and also to pray for lasting world peace…

…Remembering the 140,000 irreplaceable human lives that were lost, either on the day of the bombing or in the ensuing months, and the numerous atomic bomb survivors who still suffer from its aftereffects even to this day, one cannot help but be left with a strong sense of the horrors of nuclear weapons and a strong hope for world peace in one’s heart.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony & Peace Message Lantern Floating Ceremony

The Hiroshima bombing has had a profound impact on the world, and poets, among others, have responded. Haiku poet Yasuhiko Shigemoto, for example, has memorialized the attacks with his work:

Swallows
coming again and flying
not forgetting Hiroshima
Swings―
nowhere are they to be found
in the A-bomb park
The sunset glow―
Hiroshima
as if still burning

Other haiku poets have followed his lead:

Hiroshima Day-
I lean into the heat
Of the stone wall

Fay Aoyagi

Memorial Day –
Hiroshima mon amour
Flickering

Chen-ou Liu

paper lanterns
do you know how many died
at Hiroshima

Johnny Baranski

Let us commemorate Hiroshima Day with our own poetry! This week, I want you to write a haibun that states or alludes to either the Hiroshima attack, or one of the themes of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony, such as peace, the abolition of nuclear weapons, or the horror of nuclear war.

If this is your first time, here’s how to join:

  • Write a haibun that references Hiroshima or a related theme as described above
  • Post it on your personal site/blog
  • Copy your link onto the Mr. Linky
  • Remember to click the small checkbox about data protection.
  • Read and comment on some of your fellow poets’ work
  • Like and leave a comment below if you choose to do so
  • Have fun!

About our guest blogger: 

Frank J. Tassone is a writer, a teacher, a husband, and a father.

He fell in love with writing ever since his wrote my first short story at the age of 12 and his first poem in high school. His free-verse has appeared in the literary e-zine Pif. His haibun has been published in Failed Haiku, Cattails, Haibun Today, Contemporary Haibun Online (CHO) and Contemporary Haibun, CHO’s annual print anthology. He is honored to be a part of the Image Curve community as a contributing poet. He is also happy to be a performance poet with Rockland Poetry (formerly Suffern Poetry) in Suffern, NY.

He has worked as a special education teacher in New York City High Schools for the past twenty-one years.

He lives in Montebello, NY with his amazing wife, Mira, and their beloved son, Frank. When not writing, He meditates, hikes, practices tai chi and geeks out to Star Wars and Marvel Cinema.