Haibun (俳文) is a Japanese literary form that combines prose with haiku. One of its most celebrated examples is Oku no hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Interior) by Matsuo Bashō.
“The key to the art of haibun is the graceful pairing of poem and prose, where the poem links to the prose yet shifts away from it, in much the same way that verses relate to each other in a renku by linking and leaping.”
The relationship between the prose and the haiku is central to haibun. Rather than simply illustrating or explaining one another, the two parts can create a tension or movement between what is stated in prose and what is suggested in poetry. The haiku may echo the prose, deepen it, or leap into an unexpected but related image or perception.
Haibun can take many forms, including travel writing, personal narratives, reflections, and more experimental prose.
The smell is stronger than my feelings about eating animals. I quicken my pace to pass the meat shop before my gag reflex, both of my stomach and that of my mind, acts up. I squint my eyes to bar my mind from spinning up morbid images. I fail. Everytime.
water from
the butcher’s pail…
red geraniums
Written on September 27, 2026
(more…)I was looking at the night sky last night. Well, what’s left of it. Not being able to see even a handful of stars was unsettling; and the longer I sat in silence under the light-polluted sky, the deeper the resentment for modern life grew.
eclipsing the moon…
everyone else’s
tall houses
Written on September 25, 2026
A haibun and art chapbook that explores the coexistence of humans and nature in a modern context.
(more…)
