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Welcome to another Haibun Monday, poets! Frank J. Tassone here, and today, we again write haibun, that blend of prose-poetry and haiku. As we’re a week into spring, let’s embrace a traditional Spring kigo: cherry blossoms!

As I said last year:

Blooming from mid-March to late April, Cherry trees produce an array of beautiful flowers, whose colors embody Spring. Viewing the Cherry Blossoms (hanami) evolved as an important cultural ritual in Japan. Poets from the Heian era wrote many waka (tanka) that alluded to the blossoms. Basho continued this tradition in both his haiku and haibun writing, and other haiku poets followed his lead. Viewing Cherry Blossoms remains popular today, both in Japan and throughout the world. The United State’s National Cherry Blossom festival, for example, is an annual celebration in the nation’s capital.

Cherry blossoms evoke the transient nature of life as few phenomena can. The 2022 US National Cherry Festival predicts that this year’s peak blossom may occur this week. After that, the only evidence of bloom will be fallen petals fluttering in passing breezes.

No wonder cherry blossoms inspired some haiku masters themselves:

without regret

they fall and scatter…

cherry blossoms

(Issa)

How many, many things

They call to mind

These cherry-blossoms!

(Basho)

Sakura, sakura

they fall in the dreams

of sleeping beauty

(Buson) 

from “Haiku Poetry about Cherry Blossoms,” Alicia Joy, Culture Trips

Let’s write haibun that allude to cherry blossoms!

New to haibun? The form consists of one to a few paragraphs of prose—usually written in the present tense—that evoke an experience and are often non-fictional/autobiographical. They may be preceded or followed by one or more haiku—nature-based, using a seasonal image—that complement without directly repeating what the prose stated.

New to dVerse? Here is what you do:

  • Write a haibun that alludes to cherry blossoms.
  • 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!