Thursday 14 April 2022

Haiku and Haibun



A Haibun is a Japanese genre that mixes autobiographical writing with Haiku.

Five pointers

KEEP PROSE SIMPLE

USE SPARSE IMAGERY

EVOKE THE SENSES

USE THE PRESENT TENSE

THE HAIKU/S CAN BE INSERTED ANYWHERE BUT SHOULD ADD MEANING

 https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-haibun-poetry

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-haiku-in-4-easy-steps#quiz-0


Here is an attempt at Haibun.


THE SKIPPING ROPE

 

It is a mean spirited town. At its heart the burnt out remains of O’Neill’s Castle  smoulders.

 

scorched earth policy

employed throughout history

our culture erased.

 

Buildings have eyes. As I stand at McAleer’s corner eating Pagni’s chips out of vinegar sodden  newspaper , I feel their presence. Panoptic surveillance emanating from the RUC barracks at the top of the Square, bolstered by the Ulster bank beside it, and higher up on the Castle's ruins the latest addition

 

British armoured towers,

iron clad, cube shaped set to watch

we the occupied.

 

In 1968 the town is a battle ground flanked on two sides by council housing estates: the Ponderosa and the White City, pebble dashed rows and blocks built at right angles to each other on low lying bogs, inhabited mostly by the poorest Catholics who qualify for these by doing time in the vacated POW camp out the Moy Road.  Working class protestants occupy more salubrious zones to the south, Mill town and Moygashel, in red brick industrial cottages nestling at the foot of the Windmill Hill or around the linen factory, Dungannon’s industrial sector.

 

Bigotry runs deep in the runnels, in the rills, in the streams, and the air we breath will soon smell of metal and burning flesh. The town is on standby

 

like a skipping rope

strung tight between two players

neither keen to yield

 

 And we wait for one of them to tighten grip or loosen hold.

 Copyright 2022 Cathy Leonard All rights reserved

 

1 comment:

  1. Powerful! I particularly liked this bit: scorched earth policy, employed throughout history, our culture erased. That can apply to what's happening in so many parts of the world!

    ReplyDelete