The show is over. Darkness settles on seats with a reverent hush. Outside, hum and sparkle limp towards dawn. Late night bars exhale alcohol clouds and taxis zip along Broadway, bright yellow sharks. daffodils bow heads the show must come to an end buds burst in applause Kim M. Russell, 2018 My response to Carpe […]
Category: Haibun
Romani
I remember stories about young girls and children who ran away with the gypsies, looking for a romantic life on the road and camaraderie by the campfire. I have also heard of atrocities done to Romani folk during the Second World War and seen them vilified for setting up camp near towns and villages. I […]
Opportunity
Spring reluctantly inches forward through late snow, relentless rain and leaden skies in the dormant pond a clutch of jellied tadpoles first kingfisher flash Kim M. Russell, 2018 My response to Carpe Diem #1407 opportunity (haibun without rules) Today’s episode gives us the ‘opportunity’ to create a haibun without rules with the theme of ‘opportunity’. […]
Meadow One-Bun
Meadow spins with constellations of clover, cowslips and kingcups; hums with sweetness and industrious bees… we string daisy chains, capture vivid butterflies and then let them go Kim M. Russell, 2018 My response to Carpe Diem #1406 Meadow (one-bun) In the first episode of a new week, our challenge is to create another ‘one-bun’ – […]
New Life
Four years ago I realised that teaching was sucking the life out of me. No time for reading or writing, exhausted and ill, I was a caged bird with clipped wings. These days I can spread my wings whenever I want to. nest of speckled eggs sun-warmed clutch in budding tree dreaming of the sky […]
Happiness
It’s joy to wander on a North Norfolk beach with wind streaming in my hair and rustling the marram grass, and the primeval sounds and smells of the sea. I love to watch lazy seals in the sun, seagulls whirling overhead; to feel sand oozing between my toes, the round hardness of pebbles in my […]
Mountains
I have never stood at the foot of a mountain and looked up at it, not even when I lived in Ireland. The nearest I got to one was the Hill of Tara, from where I could see pretty much the whole of County Meath. But I have looked down from an aeroplane and marvelled […]
Daffodils
are sunshine condensed in a bulb embraced by soil, waiting to burst with yellow vitality… nature’s haiku spring everywhere. Kim M. Russell, 2018 My response to Carpe Diem #1402 Daffodils (one-bun) Today our challenge is to create a ‘one-bun’, a form that was invented by Jim Kacian. It is an ultra-short haibun which has just […]
Faith
It has taken over four years to regain faith in myself. Just before I retired from high school teaching, I was sick, exhausted, and unsure if I was doing the right thing. The plan was to finish a novel I started years ago before the pressures of teaching took over, so I enrolled on several […]
Easter
I remember, as a child, going to Sunday school and receiving a cross made from a palm leaf on Palm Sunday. On Easter Sunday, I would go to church with my grandmother, where I would receive an Easter message in the shape of a cross, usually with a picture of a lamb or spring flowers, […]
