I’ve resided in a remote Ontario cottage for several weeks. Yesterday, a blizzard was blowing and so I stayed in and enjoyed conversing with Issa via the medium of his translators’ books. As I read and write notes, I notice a particularly ominous spider web and remember that Issa offers this haiku for consideration . . . Read More ..read more

Strapped into a too-narrow, no leg-room Air Canada seat, I’m editing a manuscript, and the distinguished-looking fellow beside me looks over and, in a strong Italian accent, says, “Are you a writer or editor?” “I’m revising some of my writing,” I reply, and hand him a copy of my last haibun collection, hoping it will keep him quiet while I work ..read more

My daughter’s ashes are now spread in places she loved, although I have a hard time remembering when she loved anything but drugs, and lived anywhere but on the streets. We did our best, I’ve often thought to myself and even said aloud as we spread her ashes in a mountain meadow. You could have done better, another voice always answers. “Keep your chin up,” a friend recently said, “You’re not responsible for her choices in life.” I read that the first printed reference of “keep your chin up” comes from a 1900 edition of a Pennsylvania newspaper. The remainder of the quip is, “Don’t take your ..read more

The sun’s rays filter through a stand of spruce where twenty horses are hitched. As we unpack them, Dave, a lanky outfitter, and I chat about the grizzly we spotted earlier in the day and how the horses are holding up. men’s talk – the smell of sweat and manure Dave asks, “Ray, what are you up to these days?” I’m embarrassed to say that I receive a monthly check without having to work, that I no longer wake up by an alarm clock, that I feel guilty about those who have to rush breakfast and fight traffic, that I view my avocations as luxuries in a world stressed by war and poverty. Finally, I s ..read more

Welcome. My intent is to show examples and to discuss contemporary English-language haibun and haiga which necessitate also exploring haiku (haibun prose’s and haiga image’s little partner). Haibun: A mix of Title, prose and haiku. Akin to short memoirs and personal essays. Typically non-fiction. Haibun: A mix of image and haiku. Images including paintings of any type, photographs, digital art. . . . -> More about this blog and Ray Rasmussen ..read more

Haigaonline Journal: Daily Haiga Journal: an’ya: Haiga Gallery Pamela A. Babusci: Haiga Gallery Ron Moss: Haiga Gallery Nicole Hague-Andrews’ Haiga pages Maria Tomczak: Haiga Gallery Ray Rasmussen: A Covid Summer, 2020 [other haiga themes along with examples by other haiga practitioners will be added from time to time] About Haiga As is the case with haiku and haibun, contemporary English-language haiga is only recently adapted from the early and contemporary Japanese forms to fit Western poetic and artistic sensibilities. The internet is rife with pronouncements, prescriptions and orthodoxie ..read more

| Recently Published Haibun by Ray Rasmussen | image credit: unknown Hell isn’t merely paved with good intentions: it’s walled and roofed with them. Yes, and furnished too. ~ Aldous Huxley We’re dining on ginger beef and cod in black bean sauce, flavored with catch-up chat. My friend Kathy, leans toward me and says, “I think you’re just about to have an important birthday. Yes?” I tell her my age and, excited now, she says: “I thought so. Why don’t I organize a party to celebrate your milestone?” Milestone? The word was coined for the stone obelisks placed by those great builders, the Romans ..read more

| Recently Published Haibun by Ray Rasmussen | image by r. rasmussenThe Ask My lover asks me: "What is the difference between me and the sky?" ~ Nizar Qabbani After reading Qabbani’s poem together, my lover smiles and asks: “What’s the difference between me and the sky?” The difference, my love, is when in spring, you guide me to view the purple crocus poking above winter’s leaf litter. And when in summer, you put your canoe paddle aside to pick up your camera, and my eyes follow your gaze to a tiny bonsai-shaped spruce growing from a sawn stump in an Algonquin Lake. And when in fa ..read more

canoe & cloud, Lake Edith, Jasper National Park : r. rasmussen I don’t intend this blog to be a showcase for my published work. However, in case you want to see writing by the guy who’s pontificating about haibun and haiku on this blog, here are some my haibun published at a variety of venues: Quest, Contemporary Haibun Online, 17:2, August 2021 The Ask, Cattails, April 2020 (or download the full issue of Cattails) Storyteller, Haibun Today, 13:1, March 2019 Mo(u)rning Doves, in Drifting Sands Haibun, 2020 Best Intentions, Presence, March 2020 Winter Renewal with Issa, Contemporary Haibun ..read more

| Haibun Exemplars | Haibun Commentaries | Haibun Close Reading Guide | from the film “Witness” Commentary by Ray Rasmussen This commentary is one of several on the Haibun Exemplars I’ve selected for viewing. It follows well-known poet Robert Pinsky’s idea that to know poetry, in our case haibun, is to do close readings, at least on occasion of writers whose work you enjoy, and that close readings will help improve the reader’s range of writing styles and the quality of his or her writing. -> read more If you want to learn about poetry — if you want to “access” it — what you need to do is f ..read more