Say Hello to the Bun

If you've been following my post lately, you know that during the month of August I took part in the Poetry Postcard project. It forced me to write every day. And I'll be honest. Some days my writing was not up to par. I am a terrible first draft writer. I tend to write. Then revise. Then put in away. Then get it out a while later to revise again. With time I either produce something worthy or it goes in the "probably never amount to anything" file. I have lots of works in that file, and that's okay with me. Sometimes I can pull a good line or even a stanza from the work and use it in another piece. Others are just destined to stay in there forever.

On Monday I sent out my last August poem. Somewhere out there, people are receiving my work in the mail, good ones and not so good ones, on a postcard. I hope some of them sit back and enjoy what they read. And to those who received my not-so-good-day works, I hope they realize that these are rough drafts and that I can produce decent work.

So far, I've only received 8 postcards. The overseas mail must be extremely slow lately. Every morning I run to the mailbox to see if any surprises are waiting for me.

Also, I came across another postcard poetry project. But in this one you don't need to write anything. You just tell the literary journal which poems you like that they've published and they will send you a postcard with some of that poem on it. To anywhere in the world. For free. Just for fun. And they look like beautiful postcards. It is called The Handwritten Project and is from Cha Literary Journal. If you are interested, CLICK HERE for more information.

 
I decided to take a break from writing after the August Postcard Poetry project was completed. After all, school is starting and I have a family and other obligations (and tons of wash and ironing. How that always happens, I just can't understand. You'd think an army lived in our house.) But then Robert Lee Brewer had to go and do this! Say hello (or hai) to the 'bun. Robert is challenging everyone to write a haibun. As always with Robert's poetic form challenges, if your work is picked as the winner or even a runner-up, it might be featured in an upcoming issue of Writer's Digest. Soooooo, I guess I will be writing a haibun this week.

Haibun is a form I've been wanting to try. One of the women in my writer's group is very good at haibun. (Yes, Terri French. I am talking about you and you damn well better enter this, girl!) I could name some others who are excellent are Japanese forms (Cara, Kathy, Josie...) So, depending on who enters, the competition might be fierce. I probably don't have a chance. But I don't care. I really want to try this form. It is like a prose poem with a little haiku hanging on to it. It can be lean or meaty, so to say, depending on who long the prose part is. So I'll probably give it a try and then take a break. Maybe just work on revisions in the meantime.  

If you are interesting in learning more about this form and entering the contest, CLICK HERE to go to the post. And good luck.