Frogpond 34.3 • Autumn 2011 (pdf) - Haiku Society of America

The Lost Weekend:
An editor’s brief perspective on haibun submissions as
viewed through the prism of film noir titles.
by Roberta Beary, Bethesda, Maryland
D.O.A.
Failing to submit your best work may make your submission
dead on arrival. If you feel your haibun lacks a certain something,
and you hope an editor will supply whatever is missing,
you are mistaken. Even editors who are willing to provide
comments will not do this as the norm but as the exception.
Keep polishing your haibun until it glows in the dark. Then
submit it as your best work.
Sorry, Wrong Number
In haibun, the wrong title is like a wrong number. It makes the
reader want to hang up the phone. A haibun’s title should be
strong enough to draw the reader into the prose and make the
reader want more. Let the title be a link to the prose and the
haiku, not give away the rest of the piece. After reading the
entire haibun, the reader should be able to look at the title and
see more than one meaning.
Nightmare Alley
The present tense and short sentences work best for the prose
of the haibun. Simple writing is also the most effective.
Avoid rambling sentences and hyperbole. You don’t want to
make the reader feel as if he or she has stumbled into nightmare
alley. Do not confuse the prose of haibun with poetry.
They are not the same.
Spellbound
A good haibun should leave the reader spellbound. If you
cannot quite get to spellbound, try for mystery. Do not set
everything out in black and white. Leave a bit of gray so
there is room for the reader to maneuver among the written
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