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Welcome back, Poets, to another exciting edition of Haibun Monday, where we blend prose and haiku to form haibun. Frank J. Tassone, here, and today, I invite you to take a hike!

Do you love getting into the great outdoors? Hit the trails, then, and follow their ups and downs wherever they go. As many of you may know, My family and I are avid hikers. During the COVID quarantine, we kicked up our passion and hiked each weekend! While some of the ascents we hiked challenged us to the point of agony, the views we took in from those summits made it all worthwhile!

Bear Mountain Bridge over the Hudson River, as seen from Popolopen Torne, Bear Mountain State Park, New York

Need some more hiking inspiration?

From Tanka Diary

Harryette Mullen – 1953-

The botanical garden is just as I remember,
although it is certain that everything
has changed since my last visit.

How many hilarious questions these fuzzy
fiddleheads are inquiring of spring
will be answered as green ferns unfurl?

Walking the path, I stop to pick up
bleached bark from a tree, curled into
a scroll of ancient wisdom I am unable to read.

Even in my dreams I’m hiking
these mountain trails expecting to find a rock
that nature has shaped to remind me of a heart.

Copyright @ 2014 by Harryette Mullen. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-a-Day on May 12, 2014.

Invisible Globe

Arthur Sze – 1950-

Hiking up a trail in the snow, I spot
a rusting orange body of a car;

in midwinter, the sun’s a mirage
of July—a woman begins Taiji

movements and rotates an invisible
globe; a sky-blue morning glory

unfolds on a fence; though
the movements appear to be stretches,

they contain the tips of deflections
and strikes; behind a fence, neighbors

drink beer, grill chicken, laugh—
as snowflakes drop, I guess at

their shapes: twelve-branched,
stellar dendrite, triangular, capped

column—under a ceiling fan,
I recall our hours in a curtained

room—and as I sidestep down,
a capped column dissolves on my face.

Copyright © 2018 Arthur Sze. This poem originally appeared in Tin House, Winter 2018. Used with permission of the authors.

Of course, hiking may not be for you. In fact, some hikes we could do without, such as tax hikes, or hikes in utility rates/metro tickets. On the other hand, who wouldn’t welcome a pay hike or two?

Whatever your pleasure, today, let us write haibun in which we use the word “hike,” alluding to whatever context we find most meaningful. For those new to haibun, write a prose paragraph or two, followed by a haiku, in which you include a seasonal reference, and a complement of divergent images that provokes insight.

New to dVerse? Here’s what you do:

  • Write a haibun that uses the word “hike.”
  • Post it on your personal site/blog
  • Include a link back to dVerse in your post.
  • 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!