hosts: Shobhana Kumar and Kala Ramesh
5th May
This month we'll be showcasing haibun written by Harriot West
Here is our first offering from Harriot West’s vast repertoire.
Picking Sunflowers for Van Gogh
It’s not an easy task. For all his impasto and rough ways with the brush, he’s extraordinarily fussy about his flowers. And he hates it when they droop. Sometimes I see him gently cup a sagging bloom. So tenderly it’s easy to imagine him helping an old woman lug her panier up a rickety flight of stairs. I like him then. Despite how demanding he is to work for. Never a word of thanks. My hands stained with pollen, to say nothing of dust rags that look as though they’ve been steeped in saffron.
It’s a pity he isn’t fonder of roses. Except for those thorns. Lavender perhaps? I’d fancy that. Brushing my fingertips along the stalks, carrying their scent throughout the day, dreaming about a wild man with ginger hair and reckless ways.
heat wave
the honey bee’s
restless thrum
Harriot West
KYSO Flash Issue 6: Fall 2016
Ekphrastic Haibun Story: 146 words
Do you want to know more about the author?
Harriot West lives in Eugene, Oregon. She is a three-time winner of the Modern Haiku award for best haibun as well as a recipient of the Museum of Haiku Literature Award. Her first book, Into the Light (Mountains and Rivers Press, 2014), a collection of haibun and haiku, tied for first place in the 2015 Haiku Society of America’s Mildred Kanterman Book Awards. Her second book, Shades of Absence, a collection of haibun and tanka prose, was published in 2018 by Red Moon Press.
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What strikes you about Harriot’s work? What do you like about the manner in which the prose leaps from the title and then again forms a bridge between the title and the haiku? How does the author pick a thread or an idea from an artist’s masterpiece and then bring the conversation back to herself?
Can we invite you to write a haibun from a piece of art that you love or have drawn yourself?
We are delighted to open the comment thread for you to share your unpublished haibun (within 300 words) to be considered for inclusion in haikuKATHA monthly journal.
PLEASE NOTE: Only two haibun per poet per prompt. Share your best-polished pieces. Please do not post something in a hurry or something you have just written. Let it simmer for a while.
Beautiful haibun! I’ve been missing out on all these lovely posts. Glad I stopped by. Inspiration has come knocking. :))
A Seagull’s Long Call
Walking along the seawall in Vancouver one summer evening. Children are having fun in the small playground. There are some joggers, some brisk walkers, and a few dog lovers enjoying the sight of their pets running along a parallel walkway. A large family who have brought in their own foldable tables and chairs are enjoying an early supper.
Seated on a bench, an elderly woman gazes at the sea. And totally out of the blue, Friedrich’s painting, The Monk by the Sea, flashes before my mind’s eye. I know that, at the surface level, the two scenes have nothing in common.
I am at a temporary exposition of German Romantic painters in Paris.
A bare-headed monk…
Bridge Over a Lily Pond
I lean closer to the water lily — it’s just a daub of paint. I tell this to a man who has been painting water lilies day in and day out for the last 30 years. Daub and more daubs of paint all over the huge canvas. I shake my head. He points to the window — from his first-floor studio, I see the water lily garden.
After a long time, I turn back to his easel. The room is empty. I go down the wooden stairs and along the passage with paintings of Japanese women. When I reach the pond, Monet is in deep meditation. My reflection in the water merges with the reflection…
Has the number of haibun per prompt per poet been shortened from 3 to 2 now,Kala ? Last time you and I communicated about this you told me the limit was 3.
From Harriot:
Greetings all. I just want to say a huge thank you to Kala and the Triveni team for creating this wonderful site and for featuring my haibun this month. And thanks for the kind comments on my work…and more thanks and appreciation for all the haibun you’ve written this week. I’m sorry not to have time to comment on each one but I am so inspired by what I’ve read.