English Language Haibun: A Brief History
Ray Rasmussen
The Origins of Haibun
It’s not possible to explore the emergence of haibun in English without first examining its origins in Japan. Joan Zimmerman provides a historical context:
For more than a millennium Japanese poets have created work with interleaved prose and poetry. In that format they have written acclaimed folk tales, short stories, histories, travel journals, diaries, and novels. [1]
It's just since the 1680s though that the Japanese poets wrote what we today call haibun: prose with haiku. The following words written by the most well-known of these poets, Matsuo Munefusa (pen name: Basho, 1644-1694), set the prose stage for contemporary English-language haibun:
Days and months are travelers of eternity. So are the years that pass by. Those who steer a boat across the sea, or drive a horse over the earth till they succumb to the weight of years, spend every minute of their lives traveling. There are a great number of ancients, too, who died on the road. I myself have been tempted for a long time by the cloud-moving wind – filled with a strong desire to wander. [2]
Already famous for his haiku, in 1684 Basho began a series of journeys to sites in Japan important for their literary, religious, or military history. He is reported to have been exhausted by the incessant demands of students and his literary celebrity, and as he put it he was "feeling the breezes from the afterlife cross his face." At the end of his pilgrimages, he retreated to a remote hut with a largely unvisited shrine nearby, repaired the hut, and began writing. The Hut of the Phantom Dwelling was contained in a letter to a friend in which he employed a new style of writing and coined the term "haibun" which translates as "haiku writings". In the years 1690 to his death in 1694, he further penned: Notes in My Knapsack, the Saga Diary, A Visit to Sarashina Village, A Visit to the Kashima Shrine and finally, his masterpiece, Narrow Road to the Far North (Oku no Hosomichi). [3]
Following Basho's venture into haibun, a number of Japanese poets wrote haibun over the next 3 centuries, including the well-known masters, Issa, Buson and Shiki. [4] In the early 1800s, Kobayashi Issa wrote The Spring of My Life (Oraga Haru) which has been called the second most well-known haibun by a Japanese master. An early passage reads:
Still clothed in the dust of this suffering world, I celebrate the first day in my own way. And yet I am like the priest, for I too shun trite popular seasonal congratulations. The commonplace "crane" and "tortoise" echo like empty words, like the actors who come begging on New Year's Eve with empty wishes for prosperity. The customary New Year pine will not stand beside my door. I won't even sweep my dusty house, living as I do in a tiny hermitage constantly threatening to collapse under harsh north winds. I leave it all to Buddha, as in the ancient story.
The way ahead may be dangerous, steep as snowy trails winding through high mountains. Nevertheless I welcome the New Year just as I am.
New Year greeting-time:
I feel about average
welcoming my spring
~ Issa, tr. Hamill [5]
Both Basho's and Issa's passages are easily recognizable as ancestors of contemporary English-language haibun. Indeed, Imamura Takeshi could have been summarizing haibun appearing in today's journals when he described Basho's approach:
(Basho) added feeling and emotion derived from a deep observation of nature and human life, in an attempt to fuse elegance with the commonplace. Thus, even when the content of the haiku was deep, Basho took care to use plain expressions. [6]
Despite the beauty of Basho's and Issa's writing and the intrinsic value of mixing prose and haiku, in the early twentieth century haibun had apparently all but died out in Japan, the culture of its birth. [7] However, recent reports indicate that there may be a revival in today's Japan [8].
The Birth of English-language Haiku and Haibun:
With respect to the beginnings of haiku, David Cobb relates that English-language writers began to venture into haiku in the 60s. The interest was aroused in part by the Beat poets, in part by R H Blyth's popular History of Haiku (1963) and in part with the introduction of haiku into English poetry classes. But then as the charm of the Beat generation began to dissipate, haiku waned for about 20 years. It resurfaced in the 1980s and has been growing steadily ever since. [9]
Haibun, on the other hand, entered the stage in the 60s, but infrequently and sporadically. Jack Cain’s “Paris” the first formal-looking haibun, was published in 1963 in Volume 63; Bob Spiess’ Five Caribbean Haibun in 1972; Paul F. Schmidt’s Temple Reflections in 1980 and John Ashbery’s Haibun in 1990. At this point there was an acceleration and a spread beyond America with book-length works by Richard von Sturmer’s A Network of Dissolving Threads (New Zealand, 1991), Vladimir Devidé’s Haibun, Words & Pictures (Croatia, 1997), Ion Codrescu’s A Foreign Guest (Romania, 1999), David Cobb's Spring Journey to the Saxon Shore (UK, 1997), Jim Norton and Sean O'Connor's Pilgrim Foxes (Ireland, 2001) and Ken Jones' Arrow of Stones (UK, 2002). [10]
Modern Haiku and Frogpond (launched in 1969 and 1977 respectively) were the first haiku genre journals to carry haibun. But during this early period, the number of writers, as measured by the number of haibun published in these two journals and elsewhere, increased very slowly during the 70s through 90s.
The Growth Period of English-language Haibun
In the late 90s several events gave notice that haibun was an emerging form. Two anthologies appeared back-to-back in 1998 and 1999, Bruce Ross' Journey to the Interior, American Versions of Haibun and Wedge of Light which contains the outcome of the first haibun contest, co-edited by Michael Dylan Welch, Cor van den Heuvel and Tom Lynch. In 2000, Jim Kacian founded two anthologies: American Haibun and Haiga (now renamed Contemporary Haibun) and the Red Moon Anthology that carries a mix of genres including haibun. Cobb reports that it was not until this period that English-language haibun began to establish itself as a regular feature in dedicated journals. He points out that there was a large lag between the return of haiku and the growth of haibun. Compelling evidence of this is shown by the work of Blyth who devoted a whole chapter to Basho, but in the course of 25 pages did not mention the word 'haibun' even once. [9] Despite this period's surge of interest and growth, had the level of publication in periodicals not increased, few of today's generation of writers would now be able to find places for their work to be published.
The next significant growth occurred with the launch of two quarterly journals, Contemporary Haibun Online (2005) co-edited by Jim Kacian, Bruce Ross and Ken Jones and Haibun Today edited by Jeffrey Woodward (2007). Both are devoted to haibun and its close cousin, tanka prose. Since their inception, they've carried the majority of haibun published in a given year. Modern Haibun and Tanka Prose #1 and #2 (June and December, 2009), released by editor Jeffrey Woodward also carried a significant amount of work. And new multi-genre journals that carried haibun were founded including Pat Kelsal's Yellow Moon, Susumu Takiguchi's World Haiku Review, and Robert Mestre's and Robert Wilson's Simply Haiku. Several haibun contests were also established: the British Haiku Society printed three anthologies from its bi-annual haibun contests; the Central Valley Haiku Club of California established the Jerry Kilbride Memorial English-language Haibun Contest which exists to this day and regularly posts its winners online; and the International Haibun Contest initiated by Ken Jones in behalf of the British Haiku Society and judged by Nobuyuki Yuasa has continued to this day with the assistance of Stephen Henry Gill as the Genjuan International Haibun Contest. [11] Presently, in 2015, there are at least 11 online and 12 print journals that carry haibun and/or tanka prose. [12] Haibun books by individual writers also have appeared with increasing regularity. A number of publishers began handling individual collections, including several dedicated to haiku genre work: Alba Publishing, Red Moon Press and Snapshot Press (to name three). Internet-savvy haijin like Michael Rehling contributed by hosting many of these same online journals on his Internet server along with forums for haibun writers. Poet-leaders like Susumu Takiguchi launched the World Haiku Club's forums, which included a section, devoted to haibun, and Ban'ya Natsuishi and Jim Kacian, who launched the World Haiku Association, stimulated world-wide interest in all genres. The WHA website, for example, carries links showing the spread of these forms internationally. [13]
Read any of the current English-language publications and you will see that the content of haibun, if not the form, has evolved well beyond its Japanese foundations. While some contemporary haibun are indeed travel reports, the last two decades include reports of everyday events, memoirs, dreams, fiction and fantasy.
To summarize, with respect to haibun, the period from 1990 to 2014 witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of writers, in the types and number of publication vehicles, in writers forums and associations, in the amount of Internationalism, and, one supposes, in the number of readers.
Still, while many people have at least heard of haiku, if not having been directly exposed to haiku in their school and college classes, relatively few people have yet heard of haibun. In short, while interest in haibun has increased, it is still but a tiny pond in the landscape of the haiku genres, and just a drop of water in the larger ocean of poetry.
Haibun Defined
Definitions of a poetry form provide guidelines for practitioners. While a plethora of haibun definitions have appeared over the last two decades, it's fair to say that most of them are pronouncements, that is, they are the opinions of various practitioners and journal editors. As with the case of Yuasa's comments on the form, some have been based on interpretations of Basho's and other Japanese masters' haiku and haibun. Indeed, with each appearance of an anthology, chapbook, journal or personal blog/website, one finds definitions of haibun that have simply been produced according to the writer's tastes, or quoted or slightly modified from preceding definitions. The irony is that Basho's works are often cited as exemplars and the basis for definitions of the form. Yet according to Yuasa, "None of the classical writers . . . left any definition of haibun. So we must satisfy ourselves with a vague definition like ‘a piece of prose written with the spirit of haikai.’" He goes on to say, ". . . respect for nature, use of words in close touch with our everyday life, and avoidance of abstraction and emotionalism in search of objectivism are among the important elements of ‘the spirit of haikai’". [14]
Speaking to the issue of haibun definition, in a review of a volume of Contemporary Haibun, Jeffrey Woodward wrote:
… haibun in English has few, if any, hard and fast rules. Well-intentioned journal editors who solicit or reviewers who comment upon the genre may inform the reader that haibun’s requirements include any possible combination of the following guidelines: prose plus one or more haiku; use of present tense; use of first person; a subject chosen from one’s common everyday existence; a revelatory or ‘aha’ moment. . . . Unfortunately, the curious reader who conducts even a cursory review of the literature will soon discover that exceptions outnumber cases of conformity to every guideline cited and that, moreover, the exceptions quite often are not weaker for this lack of adherence. [15]
With respect to this lack of precision, Woodward further states:
An absence of critical and heuristic clarity is lamentable, certainly, but the failure is not wholly that of the English-language haikai community. Basho came to prose relatively late in life and left no explicit rules of composition for the practice of a genre, haibun, that he invented. That his followers were unable to build upon his successes and that haibun in Japan suffered a long decline is evidence that a proper aesthetic for haibun has yet to be elaborated in Japan as well. [16]
Woodward's statement should come as no surprise, particularly considering that over its longer number of years, English-language haiku has waxed and waned and has evolved dramatically from its original 3-line and 575-syllable orthodoxy and particularly from the early rhyming haiku presented in some of the first English translations. [17]. So we can anticipate that English-language haibun with far fewer years under its belt will also evolve slowly.
In the absence of clear definitions, what are writers to do? How will they know whether they are writing haibun and not some other established genre such as prose poetry or flash fiction (to name two genres that are closely related)? And how are editors to decide what is a good haibun and what isn't? For example, is the only difference between prose poetry and haibun that haibun contains one or more haiku?
In further addressing definition, Woodward muses that "Practice precedes theory in poetry and so poetic success in the face of a critical failure and lack of consensus should not greatly surprise.” He further suggests that while the form is evolving and becoming better defined, for now, "the individual poet will continue to write what he or she labels haibun . . ." [18]
I would add that as writers submit their work, editors will determine what is and isn't acceptable according to their own individual tastes in prose styles and haiku and in how haiku should work with prose. In turn, writers will judge the quality of the journals and the decisions made by editors and decide where to submit their work, which of the journals are most respectable, or which, at least, will show a willingness to accept a particular writer's style. And so, it's the collective decision making of the body of editors and writers working through a variety of publication venues that, over time, will determine the defining characteristics of the genre. Therein lies the value of a multiplicity of outlets and a diversity of both editors and writers.
To cite but one example of this ongoing definitional process, some present editors only accept haibun containing haiku that (in their opinion) can stand alone; others accept haibun where (in their opinion) the prose and haiku work together to produce a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
My examination of the pieces appearing in the various outlets is that at present almost anything goes with respect to content and style, subject to its being reasonably well written. It's often difficult for me to ascertain whether I'm reading haibun, prose poetry, free-verse or flash fiction but for the haiku or tanka attached to the piece. At times, it feels as if a haiku or tanka has been dropped in so that the piece will qualify for consideration by an editor.
The Importance of Literary Criticism
Literary criticism which embodies articles, reviews, commentaries and interviews of practitioners, is one place where the "what is haibun" question is examined, and thus, writers and editors are informed and provided with writing guidance. That is, when a reviewer cites a haiku or a prose passage as exemplary or when an editor accepts a number of haibun, or rejects a haibun because the haiku doesn't stand alone, the groundwork for a more precise definition of haibun is being laid, even when others may not agree with the reviewer's comments or the editor's choices.
Even a cursory examination of the variety of haibun presently appearing in journals is an indication that the definitional task isn't straightforward and, indeed, it has hardly begun. However, with the amount of publication of haibun over the last 25 years, it's now possible, for example, to address questions such as, "What percentage of the haiku in published work can stand alone?" Further, the amount of experimentation with the publication of work based on everyday events, memories, dreams, fantasy, fiction and, of course, travel accounts, invites a dialogue about the proper content of haibun and permits comparisons with flash fiction, prose poetry and free verse.
Already such analysis is being done. For one example, Woodward's review of Contemporary Haibun 8 contains the following statement indicating that he is forging a typology of haibun content:
Granted that one is more likely to confront a unicorn than any consensus on the structure and nature of haibun, what shall we make of an anthology which collects over 60 haibun by 45 contributors? Can we delineate any tendencies? Can we collate these disparate works and categorize them based upon shared methods or manners? Three methods dominate this collection — naturalism, reverie and expressionism — but the demarcations between them often blur in individual works. [19]
A second example is John Stevenson's review of Brushwood 1, the anthology of the first Nobuyuki Yuasa International English Haibun Contest held in 2002. Stevenson notes that the editor is making subtle aesthetic points about haibun prose style:
. . . aesthetic points are either stated or implied in the work selected, the format requirements or the commentary. Of particular interest is the following (quoting Yuasa): “One element of traditional Japanese haibun is understatement which leaves open space in its structure. … I often felt that the Western haibun had a tendency to be overcrowded. Japanese haibun are like watercolors, but Western haibun, at least at present, tend to be like oil paintings." [20]
With respect to the length of haibun, Yuasa in his adjudication notes wrote:
I found some entries too short. I admit that classical Japanese writers have some very short haibun, but in a contest such as this, short haibun have some disadvantage because they often give an impression of lacking volume and impact. [21]
About this, in his review, Stevenson wrote:
While it is interesting to know what the judge is looking for, the imposition of a standard that prevents contestants from attempting to move him with a stunningly effective haibun of less than 200 words seems unnecessary. [22]
In short, it's this sort of careful examination and discussion of the published body of work that permits movement beyond the initial pronouncements and that informs writers and editors about what might be considered good haibun writing.
What is to be Learned from the Japanese Masters?
It's often suggested to new writers of haiku that they read the work of the Japanese masters for guidance. Of course, the danger in such advice is that in most cases they will be reading translations that suit the stylistic abilities of the translators along with the 575-syllable orthodoxy initially used to translate the Masters' works which, according to some, produced overly-ornamented and over-long haiku which don't represent today's haibun that average around 13 syllables.
Still, the Master's work does offer food for thought and there exists a multitude of both translations and critical analysis of the Japanese haiku poets' works. Indeed, in the context of free verse poetry, United States Poet Laureate Emeritus Robert Pinsky states that "young poets can learn a lot from old poetry. Models provide inspiration, which is different from imitation.” [23]
Similar suggestions are made to writers of haibun, that is, that they should read haibun of the Japanese masters (as well as their haiku). But while some of the Japanese masters' haibun have been translated into English, they are few in number and some are difficult to find either online or in print. So it's safe to say that few current English-language practitioners have ready access to the translations or have read them. I would venture a guess that many current writers only read the current periodicals for guidance as to style and content.
With respect to critical writing about English-language haibun, in 2008, Woodward wrote:
. . . informed critical study of English-language haibun to date is virtually non-existent. No adequate bibliography exists. Studies of Basho or Issa are available but there are no monographs on modern practitioners and precious few essays. [24]
Indeed, as of 2015, English-language multi-genre journals like Blithe Spirit, Bottle Rockets, Modern Haiku and Frogpond have produced almost no criticism related to haibun. However, both Contemporary Haibun Online and Haibun Today have increasingly published literary criticism related to haibun. At this point, for example, Haibun Today's resources page contains more than 70 book reviews, 65 articles, and 20 interviews of writers who have succeeded in having a significant body of their work published. [25]. Further, there now exists a Haibun & Tanka Prose Resources Website that hosts articles, reviews, interviews and commentaries collected from journals that carry such work. [26]
The Importance of Haibun Collections & Contests
Collected haibun appear in two forms, Anthologies and Individual writers' books.
Anthologies are collections by different writers, usually previously published, but sometimes the result of a contest or call for submissions. They are important for several reasons. The work that appears has been double- or even triple-selected for its quality, first by the editors of the place of first publication and second by the editors who put together the collection.
With Contemporary Haibun and the Red Moon Anthology, there is a third aspect of selection in that the editors at the place of first publication are invited to submit the best work that has appeared during the year. Thus, they offer writing by a variety of writers that has been judged by different sources to be the best of the year's best.
The new Journeys anthologies (2014, 2015) edited by Angelee Deodhar have a different approach to selection. In this case, the editor selects twenty-five writers deemed as having significantly contributed to the body of published haibun. Each writer is asked to submit 10 of his or her best published works and a guest editor then selects 5 haibun from each writer for the collection. In short, this is a triple selection process not just of a year's best, but also of five self-selected examples of each writer's lifetime best or favorite works.
Contest anthologies are perhaps best thought of as yearly publications, but with the caveat that they offer a special sort of recognition because they are often judged by prominent writers as in the case of International Haibun Contest, judged by Nobuyuki Yuasa. The writers who submit their work want it to be read, commented on, and hopefully selected by someone of Yuasa's stature. Thus there is a double selection process because they are likely to send their best work and an independent editor selects the winners. So contest selections are likely to be some of the best work by today's writers.
Personal collections most often consist of a writer's published work. If the collection is self-published, there is a double selection at work, first by the journal editors who first accepted the work and then by the writers who are saying, in effect, this is some of my best work. If there is an independent publisher, there is a third aspect of selection in that in the publisher's judgment, it's a worthwhile investment to design the cover and interior, format the text, establish the price, distribute and market the book.
In summary, beyond being a celebration of good writing and stimulus for interest, collections of all types function as grist for the critic's mill and provide guidance for editors and writers. Therein one can find the best-of-the-year, or the best-of-the-writer's-work or the best-of-the-work-submitted.
The Future of English-language Haibun
Cobb is upbeat about the future of haibun. He writes: "These developments may, after all, not be so surprising, for it may well be that haibun, internationally, has reached its time, and is an expression of current global Zeitgeist." [28]
I'm hopeful that Cobb's optimism is warranted. But given the somewhat inauspicious and haphazard beginnings of English-language haibun and that the champions have been few, what indeed does the future hold? Will the number of writers and publication venues increase? Will there be sufficient critical work resulting in a clearer definition of haibun and greater interest in reading haibun? Will haibun find its way into mainline poetry journals and other periodicals, or for that matter, will haiku? Will poets from other genres venture into haibun and offer different visions of good writing? Will the international participation in writing haibun continue to grow? And, most important, will new champions step forward to carry haibun into a place of prominence similar to that of haiku?
In considering these questions I feel optimistic, but also offer the following cautions. In the last year, we've lost one of our most significant anthologies, Contemporary Haibun. So far, no one has stepped up to carry it forward. Right now, several of our important online journals walk a fine line between existence and extinction. And several that were started in the last two decades have already disappeared. In particular, volunteers to edit, copy-edit and format journals are needed. Presently a few volunteers work for a long hours over a number of years, and suddenly, to our surprise, burn out. Also these ventures require some level of funding to cover expenses such as Internet service. So if you're not making regular contributions to our journals, you might consider doing so. Important journals, such as Contemporary Haibun Online and Haibun Today haven't developed a means of financing their ventures in order to ensure their longevity. Did you know, for example, that their editors dig into their own pockets to finance the costs of posting work on the Internet?
On the other hand, literary criticism has grown dramatically, to a large extent under the influence of Jeffrey Woodward. But it's taxing and difficult to encourage busy writers to venture into critical analysis.
Under the initiative of Angelee Deodhar, we've now gained a new venture, Journeys, in two volumes. Hopefully more will be coming. Will you help with this effort by at least buying the book? And why not consider buying several copies and sending them to friends as a means of telling them about this new genre that has evidently enchanted you?
We have now have several established competitions, but the reports from them are all but lost in the Internet world. We need to find ways of archiving this important work. As well, many journals that have disappeared are lost permanently because they weren't archived.
So the hope for the future of English-language haibun is that the examples provided herein by Angelee Deodhar, Jeffrey Woodward, Jim Kacian, Nobuyuki Yuasa, Ken Jones, Michael Dylan Welch and Michael Rehling (and by many others who could have been named in this brief history) will serve to encourage others into volunteering as journal editors, webmasters and copy editors, as judges of contests, as volunteer officers in our associations and conferences, and into producing critical work. In short, the future of haibun is in our hands.
~ Ray Rasmussen, 2015
Biography: Ray Rasmussen currently serves as an editor of Haibun Today. He lives in Edmonton, Alberta and Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada. He has been composing haibun since the late 90s and his work has been published in a variety of journals and included in anthologies. He began to serve as volunteer editor in 2004, first as a haiga editor for Simply Haiku, then as haibun editor in succession for the World Haiku Review, Notes from the Gean, A Hundred Gourds and for the last several years, Haibun Today. He co-founded Contemporary Haibun Online with Jim Kacian and A Hundred Gourds with Lorin Ford. He co-created the websites for Contemporary Haibun Online, A Hundred Gourds, and Haibun Today and presently serves as technical editor for Contemporary Haibun Online and Haibun Today.
When he’s not busy writing and editing, he spends a good deal of his time hiking, canoeing, snowshoeing and photographing wilderness places including Alberta’s Willmore Wilderness Park and Jasper National Park, Utah’s Canyonlands and Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park. His haiku website is: http://raysweb.net/haiku
1. I've drawn from two of Joan Zimmerman's articles: “What English-Language Haibun Poets Can Learn From Japanese Practices,” Contemporary Haibun Online 9:4, January 2014, and “What Haibun Poets Can Learn From Non-haikai Western Poetry Practices,” Contemporary Haibun Online 9:3, 2013.
2. Matsuo Basho, The Narrow Road to the Deep North and Other Travel Sketches, Translated by Nobuyuki Yuasa, Penguin Classics, 1967.
3. I've drawn on two articles for some of the content in this paragraph. Howard Norman, “On the Poet’s Trail,” National Geographic, February 2015; "Matsuo Basho", taken from Wikipedia on March 12, 2015.
4. Beverly George, "A Voyage into Haibun," Blithe Spirit: Journal of the British Haiku Society 24 (3). George writes: In answer to the question, "What is Haibun," Imamura Takeshi cites the following Japanese examples: Oku no Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Deep North) of Matsuo Basho; Shin hana tsumi (The New Gathering Flowers) by Yosa Buson; K?shin'an-ki (Notes from K?shinan'an) and Tsukiyo s?shi (Sketches of Moonlit Nights) both by Kurita Chod?; Chichi no sh?en nikki (Last Days of My Father) by Kobayashi Issa, and By?sh? rokushaku (Six-foot Sickbed) by Masaoka Shiki.
5. Kobayashi Issa, The Spring of My Life and Selected Haiku, Translation and Introduction by Sam Hamill, Boston: Shambhala, 1997.
6. Taken from Zimmerman, ibid.
7. David Cobb, "Transmissions of Haibun," Haibun Today 7:3, September 2013.
8. Jim Kacian, "A Brief History of English-Language Haibun,” taken on March 15 from the Haibun Resources Website.
URL: http://raysweb.net/haibunresources/pages/reprints.html
9. Cobb, ibid.
10. Kacian, ibid. and Cobb, ibid.
11. The International Haibun Contest has been called variously the Yuasa International, Brushwood, Kikakuza and Genjuan Contests.
12. Haibun and Tanka Prose Website. URL: http://raysweb.net/haibunresources
13. The World Haiku Club website has morphed into the current version of the World Haiku Review URL: https://whrarchives.wordpress.com/about/ ; and The World Haiku Association remains a key place to find links to International Associations, Presses and haiku related poetry sites and competitions. URL: http://www.worldhaiku.net/links.htm
14. Yuasa quote taken from Zimmerman ibid.
15. See Jeffrey Woodward's editorial series appearing in Haibun Today. URL: http://haibuntoday.com/pages/resources.html
16. Woodward, ibid.
17. Cobb, ibid.
18. Woodward, ibid.
19. Woodward, ibid.
20. John Stevenson, "Review of Brushwood 1: Anthology of the Nobuyuki Yuasa International English Haibun Contest 2002," Modern Haiku, Volume 34.1, Spring 2003
21. Stevenson ibid.
22. Stevenson ibid.
23. Robert Pinsky, Singing School: Learning to Write (and Read) Poetry by Studying with the Masters, New York, Norton & Company, 2013 as reported in Zimmerman, ibid.
24. Woodward, ibid.
25. Resources Webpage, Haibun Today. URL: http://haibuntoday.com/pages/resources.html
26. Haibun and Tanka Prose Website, ibid.
27. Stevenson, ibid.
28. Cobb, Ibid.
Note: A version of this article first appeared in Angelee Deodhar (Editor), Journeys 2, 2015. |
