Haibun

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Haibun (Japanese: 俳文) is a combination of brief prose and haiku, often autobiographical or written in the form of a travelog. Bashō, a Japanese poet, was a prominent early writer of haibun. He wrote haibun as a travel account during his various journeys, the most famous example of which is the Oku no Hosomichi, or Narrow Road to the Interior (one of its best translations into English is Cid Corman's).

The contemporary practice of haibun composition in English is evolving rapidly (see Haibun Defined: Anthology of Haibun Definitions). In general, a haibun consists of one or more paragraphs with one or more embedded haiku. The prose ordinarily comes first and is usually concise and leans toward the poetic. It records a scene, or a special moment, in a highly descriptive and chiefly objective manner. The accompanying haiku has either a direct or subtle relationship with the prose, but it often encompasses or hints at the gist of the recorded experience. The contrasting combination of prose and haiku provides the reader with more powerful insight from what might have been possible from either one separately. It is important not to say anything too directly, but to paint a picture of the moment and let readers use their imaginations to intuitively immerse themselves in the writer's experience.

Present tense, brevity in prose, and well-crafted implication are preferred in modern haibun composition. The writer of haibun tries to avoid generalizations and paints the scene in a detached manner. While the prose may be a part of a journal entry, great care has to be taken to revise and edit the text to produce a polished final product. In a good haibun, the prose does not "give away" the haiku; rather the haiku often amplifies the experience's defining moment. Similarly, the haiku should not restate the prose, but should relate to the prose in an oblique manner, and avoid repeating words, phrases, and images used in the prose.

Among contemporary haibun Masters, the japanese Sakuo Nakamura can be considered a leading voice: in his works he widely uses of advanced medias' tools together with classical painting and sketching, in order to create a highly peculiar mix of painted images, written and spoken poetry. Modern western haibun writers of note include Jim Kacian, Bruce Ross, Ken Jones, David Cobb, Jerry Kilbride, Paul Conneally, W. F. Owen, Ray Rasumussen, and Stanley Pelter. A definition of haibun can be found in Contemporary Haibun Onlineand an extensive haibun bibliography in Haibun Today