Rest & Resist: Composing a Haibun Poem 

Glenda retired from full-time teaching in 2019 after a 38 year career and is now substitute teaching in her district. In addition to being a dog and cat mom, Glenda is a doting grandmother to baby Ezra, who at eight months old scampers around “like he has a jetpack on. Glenda recently moved and renamed her blog Swirl & Swing. You can find her at www.glendafunk.wordpress.com

Inspiration

In January I read Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto  by Tricia Hersey, aka The Nap Bishop, and have been thinking about the book’s thesis since. Hersey writes, “We are resting simply because it is our divine right to do so” as part of her indictment of “grind culture.” The jet lag accompanying a long day of travel makes the need for rest more imperative. I imagine many poets in this community long for rest, too. 

I learned about the Haibun poem form during the March Slice of Life Story Challenge on Two Writing Teachers in a post by Erika J who first shared it via Teach Write. Haibun originated in Japan and combines prose and haiku. Haibun can feature many genre forms, including narrative, biography, diary, essay, prose poem, travel journal, etc. The prose section comes first and is followed by the haiku, which an article on Poets.org describes as “a whispery and insightful postscript.” 

The idea of rest as a form of resistance featured in a Haibun poem appeals to me. 

Summer Haibun by Aimee Nezhukumatathil begins

To everything there is a season of parrots. Instead of feathers, we searched the sky for meteors on our last night. Salamanders use the stars to find their way home. Who knew they could see that far, fix the tiny arrangements of their eyes on distant arrangements of lights so to return to wet and wild nests….

and ends with the following haiku:

the cool night before
star showers: so sticky so
warm so full of light

Glenda’s Poem

Reset 

An unwelcome squatter in an abandoned building, jet lag halos my life following reentry into reality. A curated tour on which we players strut from scene to scene sampling culture, climate, and curiosities offers little time for rest, relaxation, renewal apart from supporting cast and costume changes. Once the curtain falls on our escape from reality, and we rejoin our known worlds, we seek respite; we long for rest; we desire sleep. The balm of nighttime nectar evades as the clock’s cruel hands spin, leaving me in the wake of insomnia. iPhone in hand, I scroll through time’s infinite ticking seconds. 

Is this exhaustion
prologue? Death’s prequel followed
by its exeunt end

Process

We have options! Compose a poem juxtaposing ideas about rest with the Haibun form; choose a different theme for your haibun; write in a different form about rest. Reject all these and do your own poetic thing! 

Hint: I’ve noticed the economy of words in the haibun and believe this is achieved by omitting as many being verbs (and dare I say adjectives) as possible. Concision is key. 

Your Turn

Now, scroll to the comment section below to write your own poem. (This is a public space, so you may choose to use only your first name or initials depending on your privacy preferences.) Not ready? That’s okay. Read the poems already posted for more inspiration. Ponder your own throughout the day. Return later. And, if the prompt does not work for you, that is fine. All writing is welcome. Just write something. Also, please be sure to respond to at least three writers. Oh, and a note about drafting: Since we are writing in short bursts, we all understand (and even welcome) the typos and partial poems that remind us we are human and that writing is always becoming. If you’d like to invite other teachers to write with us, tell them to subscribe.