Last week on Ruth’s post I was introduced to a new poetry form, the haibun. Partly because of that bit of inspiration, plus a challenge from Marcie in my poetry group, I started playing with this form. A haibun combines prose with a haiku, most often focusing on nature, a landscape, perhaps a journey. The prose part can be thought of as a prose poem, and the haiku as a postscript, or as Aimee Nezhukumatahil calls it, a “meaningful murmur.”
I wrote several during the week, conjuring up landscapes in my mind or thinking about the places around me perhaps a little differently. I was still thinking of last week’s color poems when this one came to mind.
Garden Color
Draft, 2022 Rose Cappelli
Brown rules early spring in the garden. The once vibrant green stalks of the silky dogwood are now a rich mahogany. They stand tall next to the barren branches of the winterberry, long ago picked clean of scarlet berries. But there is hope. Dig under the crispy-khaki leaves of autumn, through coffee-colored peat, and you’ll find shoots as pink as the blush of a baby’s cheek…peonies! And now, in the planter above the umber earth, there are pansies—yellow and purple promises of spring.
pockets of pansies
where water welcomes bluebirds
into the garden
Amy has the poetry roundup this week at The Poem Farm. Head over there for a peek at what she has planned for April, and of course lots more poetry goodness.
Imagine the Possibilities 
Rose! Rose! You give me hope. Yes, the colors of brown in a garden offer their own gifts, and I am so glad you included them here – “crispy-khaki” is wonderful! Peonies are one of my favorites, and I have been wondering when when when is it safe to plant pansies? (Not yet…we’re getting snow tomorrow.) Your haibun is lovely and inspires me to try one. I never have. xo
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Thank you, Amy. Not sure about snow, but pansies like it a bit chilly.
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Oh, Rose! This haibun is gorgeous is its “b’s” … I want to be in that garden!
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Thanks! Hope you’re having fun at the game!
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I like haibuns very much, & yours captures this time so well, Rose. I love those “pockets of pansies”
Thanks for celebrating the ‘browns’, too, where we start. . .
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Thanks, Linda!
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I’ve never written a haibun before, Rose. I write poetry to escape prose! But I enjoy this one and others recently shared :>) Beautiful pockets of pansies…
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I love all the ways you describe the colors of the garden, mahogany, scarlet, coffee-colored. Lovely garden haibun.
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I love this and so glad that you are exploring this form. I love “crispy-khaki.” I also love the haibun paired with photos. Since haibun is often a travel poem, I think it would be a cool project to do on vacation, paired with a photo. I love how Aimee talked about traveling in your own local area during the pandemic–haibuns about the landscapes right in front of us, like you did!
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Thanks, Marcie! I found Aimee’s resources to be so interesting. Thank you again for all the recommendations.
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I love how you drilled down on all the rich shades of brown in the early spring garden!!
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Lovely. I wish I could write poetry. My brain is not wired that way.
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Thanks for reading.
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What a lovely musical prose poem you constructed! I especially like “Dig under the crispy-khaki leaves of autumn, through coffee-colored peat.” And I love that birdbath/planter!
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Thanks, Heidi!
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Such a wonderful poetic form. The haiku is like the punctuation mark at the end of the prose – distilling the idea into its most concentrated form at the end for the strongest impact. I loved your use of color in this haibun “scarlet berries / crispy-khaki leaves of autumn / coffee-colored peat / pink as the blush of a baby’s cheek” and more – your poem is full of color just like the emerging spring landscape. Thanks for sharing it with us.
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