A Month of Poems

April has been a busy month of poems. It takes dedication to keep up with NaPoWriMo while continuing with life as usual. I haven’t been sleeping well for a long time, waking up at strange o’clock and struggling to get back to sleep because of the lack of silence in my head as ideas, lines, stanzas and even entire poems buzz around. If I stay up to write them down, it’s even harder to get back to sleep; if I do fall back into dreamland, I lose the poems and must wring them out of my subconscious.

Yesterday, I ventured into the garden, where it is quiet. I cleaned up the patio, rescued some plants, and grappled with nettles and brambles, which resulted in silence in my head and a better night’s sleep— and a haibun as a reward!

a blank page or screen
anticipates poetry
words break the silence

Kim M. Russell, 27^th April 2026

This Monday at the dVerse Poets Pub, we are writing haibun, the “hybrid form Basho pioneered”, as our host, Frank, says.

Frank reminds us that there are many connotations to silence: the absence of noise; the muting of the voice; liberation from the endless chatter of our restless minds; the suppression of our revolutionary impulses; a rest in the orchestral score, or its dissolution – which also applies to poetry.

Frank says that “whatever our perspective on it, silence is a reality we dare not ignore”. He has shared haiku on the subject by Basho, Con Van Dan Heuvel and Tom Clauasen to inspire our silent haibun.