Today's poem is written to a newspaper clipping we found in my dad's papers after he passed away. We were astounded to learn he'd been in a car accident and that it had been reported in the paper! It was treated like the end of the world when we had minor fender benders, so it seemed he'd been rather hypocritical when we learned about his youthful indiscretion. Oh the stories our parents never tell us about their youth! I can only imagine what happened when he got home.
This poem is written as a haibun. A haibun is a form that combines prose with haiku. Haibun prose is usually descriptive and is meant to set a scene or evoke an image in the reader. It is followed by a haiku that serves to deepen the meaning of the prose, either by expanding on the theme or serving as a juxtaposition to it. You can learn more about haibun at More Than Birds, Bees, and Trees: A Closer Look at Writing Haibun.
I hope you'll come back tomorrow and see what new inspiration I've found for a poem. Until then, you may want to read previous poems in this series. I'm also sharing these poems on my Instagram in case you want to see them all in one place.
April 1 - Senryu to a photo of my grandmother as a child
April 2 - Haiku to my mother's recipe
April 3 - Dodoitsu to a war memento
April 4 - Choka to my mother's engagement announcement
April 5 - Gogyohka to the receipt for my mother's engagement ring
April 6 - Senryu to a student's drawing of my dad
April 7 - Tanka to a photo of my grandmother and her mother by a car
April 8 - Dodoitsu to a piece of V-mail from my great uncle
April 9 - Senryu to a Christmas card from Paris during the war (1944)
April 10 - Somonka to a war letter to my father
April 11 - Dodoitsu to an early family portrait of my mother
April 12 - Senryu to a photo of WWII nose art
April 13 - Senryu to a pair of postage stamps issued in 1934
April 14 - Somonka to a war letter to my father
April 15 - Senryu to a photo of my mother as a child
April 16 - Senryu to an Easter card my grandmother sent my grandfather
April 17 - Senryu to an Easter card my grandfather sent my grandmother
April 18 - Tanka to a First Day Cover celebrating NATO's 10th anniversary (1959)
April 19 - Somonka to my grandparent's wedding photo
April 20 - Dodoitsu to a list my grandfather made of the cars he owned
This is another interesting piece of history. I can imagine how this accident was treated upon arrival home.
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