Round Three = Stephen Leslie

The definition of a Haibun poem is; a combination of prose and haiku poetry. A related form is 'Tanka Prose' – a combination of prose and tanka poetry. To tell you the truth when I read what Haibun poetry was I really didn't understand it. I needed to read a few examples by Stephen Leslie to really get an understanding of what it was. After reading a few of his poems I feel like a have a rough understanding of the way you write them. In his Haibun's Leslie starts off with a paragraph of two that kind of set the floor and then a short sentence of two that brings you closer to the end and then a haiku that finishes off the poem. In the beginning of the poem it really isn't a poem. It is more like a story that help build up into a poem. For instance in Leslies Haibun about the red tailed hawk his first paragraph reads like; “It was a large red-tailed hawk decked in a gorgeous mane of white and brown feathers. One-inch claws clenched, his yellow eyes closed, his body crumpled … face down in the asphalt." That was just a little blurb from the first paragraph but it gives you the idea of how it’s not really poetry more storytelling. The second part of the Haibun is where it is sort of a hybrid between poetry and writing as shown in the poem Her; "Sometimes I wish she was more cordial, but our relationship is all business. When it is time for us to part she is silent ... but I know I will hear her voice again." Then the third part is just a regular Haiku that we all know how to write and are very familiar with. All in all the form of poetry, Haibun is a very fascinating topic.




My Attempt:
Cross Country races have the tendency to be very fun. It starts with a usually very fun bus ride to where we have our race. Some of my fondest memories happened on these busses. Then you get off the bus and you usually have a little while before your race to hang out and then comes warm up time. You run for about 40 minutes all over wherever you are and then meet up where our camp is. There we start stretching and starting to mentally prepare for the race.


I have no memories of the minutes before a race, only that feeling you get right before the gun goes off. A terrible feeling that you never want to feel.


That horrible feel
All fun is gone in the world
Then finally, start




1/10 speaker= 4 stars