Līgo Haibun Challenge – Picture Week (UPDATED about the Honourable Mentions)

The time has come for another Līgo Haibun Challenge – welcome everyone! It was a true gift for me to be able to read the haibun written by you last week. So various, full of colours, emotionally expressive, moving and never loosing that powerful connection with nature.

Following are the Honourable Mentions for last week’s Līgo Haibun Challenge. We are still trying very hard to keep it to 3, and plan to get it down one week. Until then so deserving Honourable mentions this week were:

– Honourable Mention for Classic Haibun Format
Penny superb, in style, content and moment explored. So much in it but also wonderful read.

– Honourable Mention for Emotional Impact
Nicole dark, traumatic

Freya tense, personal

– Honourable Mention for Originality
Sun a haibun with a message, something of a new genre

Jrosenberry very well-written haibun leading to a vivid end in a twist. Again, a new genre in style and topic

– Honourable Mention for Style
Jules very poetic discovery

Twoscamps sent 2 haibun, both really intricate, clever and enjoyable to read, and very different from each other. Patricia sent in a marvel, just beautiful and it is one of the one’s I enjoyed the most. It seems impossible to leave out. Peripatetic Eric’s too, was of the familiar high standard, and Yarnspinner’s, while Suzanne’s haibun was closest to Basho’s Narrow Road to the Seep North format.

Please therefore do not feel you have been left out undeservedly, even when you have.

In the haibun this week we’d like you to use a season word. That may be an actual word like ‘Autumn’ or ‘Spring’, or a word that represents Autumn, Spring or any of the other seasons. Considering that the Saami people around the Arctic Circle have eight seasons can give you quite a choice!

Season words, called kigo, are often used in haiku, and though one can find lists of season words it is nice just to think of your own. The same goes for the prose, and it is just another way of creating the atmosphere and giving your piece background. This ‘landscaping’ can bring more to a haibun sometimes, as a haibun is not quite a story or article, though we could happily call it a scene or an episode.

Some season words already used in last week’s haibun, for example, were Penny’s crisp air and cold water.

Giveaways have been moved till next week, to get the photos done. Please do send prompt quote, word and photo suggestions. They can be emailed to piratehaven {at} inbox.lv

The choice of pictures this week comes from Dr Agnieszka Wojtecka, from Gdansk, Poland. Although some information on the photos is not meant to influence your haibun, it may still be relevant. In the first one there is a Himba tribal woman in Namibia, Africa. Pirate has selected this picture because it gives some insight into their tribal way of life and natural values.

Her second picture is of a street scene in Katmandu, though this fact might not be relevant to your haibun.

https://www.facebook.com/agnieszka.wojtecka.16