November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2019: Day 8: Hens

Image by Capri23auto from Pixabay

When I was a child in New Mexico, my family kept chickens. We had hens of many different varieties, and we would take the extra eggs and sell them at the farmers' market. Sadly, when my father got a job in Colorado after obtaining his doctorate, we couldn't take the chickens. We gave them to some family friends. I have always wanted to keep hens again, and maybe once my son and I are done working on clearing the mobile home out for sale, it will become a possibility.

I remember them

and the gifts they gave to us

lovely feathered friends

~Cie~

Notes:

The November PAD Chapbook Challenge prompt for today was to write a poem about an animal. So, I wrote a Haibun about some hens.

My little home for poetry used to be subject to an unpleasant visitor who would quibble about minutia, claiming that every poem I wrote was suspect because I mentioned occasionally using the Haibun form to write flash fiction. This individual stated that a Haibun must always be non-fiction. However, the description of a Haibun from Poetry Soup is as follows:

"A Haibun is a type of poem that operates on a prosimetric structure. It combines the forms of prose and haiku to create an artistically-challenging puzzle. However, these poems can cover a broad range of topics and expressions, including anything from short stories to personal journals and scholarly essays.

Haibun poems originate in Japan and were invented in the 17th century by famous poet Matsuo Basho. He thought to combine popular Chinese prose elements with Japanese haiku styles for an educational and creative outcome."

Thankfully, this person got miffed at me for not interacting with them beyond the basic acknowledgment of their presence, told me off, and, mercifully, fucked off. I was a bit astounded by their vehemence but mostly happy to have them gone.

Poetry should be about expression. If you're more concerned with adhering to extremely strict rules than with expressing your thoughts and emotions, you're doing it wrong. But, you know, do it how you like in your house. Just don't come to my house and tell me I have to do things the way you do.