Happy Poetry Friday, and happy New Year to you! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.)
I always feel like I’m at confession when it’s time for a Poetry Sisters post. This month is no different. I don’t like haibun. In fact, if you’ve posted them in the past, I’ve probably read just the haiku and skipped the prose.
Okay, now you know my dirty secret!
But, our assignment this month was haibun, so I had to give it a try. I’m picking back up my Ireland memories from October. The whole reason we went to Northern Ireland (for just one full day) was to see the Giant’s Causeway, an amazing natural phenomenon. But it meant we had to take a bus tour–NOT our preferred way to explore. It was fine overall, and so worth doing. But a bit of silence would’ve been welcome ;>)
Here’s my draft, along with a few pics from the tour.
The Poetry Sisters are going to keep writing together in 2025 (yay!), and we hope you’ll join in whenever you’re able. However, we haven’t made our schedule yet. We’ll try to share by mid-month whatever our challenge is for January!
Meanwhile, check out the haibun efforts of…
Liz
Sara
Tanita
Tricia
Mary Lee
Click here to see all our previous Poetry Princesses collaborations.
And our Poetry Friday host for the final week of 2024 is the multi-talented Michelle Kogan! Make sure to see what she’s offering up this week and check out the Roundup!
19 Responses
Terrific poem Laura, you’ve captured the scene with oodles of sensory nature descriptions which build a haibun— and your pics on the side add to it! My haibun took another turn, clouded by events of the impending new year… Thanks!
BRILLIANT final line of your haiku. Maybe you don’t like haibun, but you nailed this one.
Great! Love the line about finally getting to the hexagonal pillars! Your need and desires for silence matches mine, Laura. Although, we did have some on our Irish tours via charter bus. We only took two over our 24 day stay snd both drivers were outstanding. No one else talked and on the was back one driver was silence for the two hour ride.
Maybe I’ll write about silence this week. Thanks for the inspiration.
I like haibun but have only written one when we visited Acadia National Park.
The tour guide was quiet on the final bit of the drive. She said she wouldn’t be talking on that last two hours. But she did go around to the people in every seat to chat, answer questions, etc. She was actually really knowledgeable and a good storyteller, but the flow of talk was just so…constant! I didn’t regret doing it, but I did have to put my earbuds in to just check out a couple of times.
“Silence is forbidden.” Agony!! But I am glad you went and glad you shared it with us here. And I kind of love that you jump straight to the haiku. 🙂 xo
I forgot that the haiku is supposed to be a distillation of the prose poem. Oops! I just barreled right into it :>D
Ha ha ha — your confession made me laugh, Laura. Poetic honestly above all! But I gotta say, you know how to WRITE a haibun even if you don’t like them. The prose and poetry go perfectly together and, like Mary Lee, that final line just lands perfectly for me…
Ha! Your honesty makes this poem sing. And your details. Maybe all hai-bun “crop out the world” so we can see it more clearly. Well done.
Laura, so much information in so few words. I felt like I was there with you. I have never visited Ireland, and I had not heard of famine cottages. Of course, your poem sent me looking for even more information. Someday I would love to visit Ireland. Until then, I enjoy traveling there with you through your poetry!
I hope you make it to Ireland and Northern Ireland. I recommend the rural areas more than the cities, though we had lots of fun in Dublin. Still, the other trip we took, where we were in small villages and country areas the whole trip–that was the most beautiful part of the country for me!
“Silence is forbidden”
This is why I sit in the quiet car on the train. I’m sure a tour bus would have me out of my mind. I love reading about the trip to see it, and your haiku caps it off beautifully.
Ugh, “silence was forbidden.” And that, friend, is also why I loathe tours of any sort. Except for going to Iceland at 1AM to see Northern Lights and I needed other voices to keep me awake (!), I prefer to crop out the world.
I struggle with haibun, too. But I think we can at least pay ourselves on the shoulder this time!
Laura, this haibun so accurately portrays the group-tour experience (“large windows for a prison”) that it made me laugh. I did not see the Giant’s Causeway when I went to Ireland many years ago, but I’d love to! Great last line, as others are saying.
Laura, for a poet who does not like haibuns, you surely wrote a fine one. I agree with others that the last line of your haiku is wonderful. I also love the line about the hexagonal basalt pillars. Ireland provided a wealth of imagery for your poetry. Happy New Year!
You may not like haibuns but you wrote one that evokes my fond memories of visitng the Giant’s Causeway (I want more time in Northern Ireland).
Laura, I am amused to see you say it’s the haiku part you usually favor, because to my ear it’s the prose here that shakes, then sings, then silences. Viva the brave plunge!
I adore the last line in your haiku. Also, I laughed out loud at the “silence is forbidden” part of bus tours. I’m so afraid of bus tours. 🙂 And Ireland’s roads are so narrow.
Laura, I love this. I can relate to the need for silence and you capture the yearning for it in the midst of the tour so perfectly. And at the end, I felt so satisfied as you created your own little bubble and temporarily cropped out the rest of the world. Lovely!
Love your honesty, Laura! The prose, haiku, and photos all came together beautifully in your post. Thank you for sharing this bit of your journey in such a special way. As Mary Lee said — you nailed it.