The land blazes, and when the scorched earth finally breathes again, it emerges richer and deeper, cleared and ready for new life to take root.
We resist destruction and hold on to what we have built, gathered, shaped, and claimed as ours. Each part fits into the puzzle of who we are. Burning our identities to ash or setting our journals on fire takes a kind of courage many of us have not yet found.
Kali, the Hindu goddess of time, change, and destruction, calls us to light our inner fire and let it burn away our egos, illusions, and ignorance so we can be renewed and reborn. Does this strong inner fire erase, change, or maybe, like a tool for refining, draw meaning from what remains?
Burning.
Distilling.
Both ideas shape how we deal with pain and trauma, and also how we process emotions and experiences. We burn them down until they change into something that feeds us, full of new meaning.
the burning haibun
The burning haibun is a variation of the traditional haibun, a Japanese poetic form made popular by Matsuo Bashō in the seventeenth century. It combines a prose poem with a haiku that acts as a final note, either adding to or complicating the prose, but with more separation between the parts. I was drawn to this form because of its dual nature: the prose is open and detailed, while the haiku is brief and focused. This lets me find meaning in the prose and capture it in the haiku. There is no right or wrong way to approach the burning haibun. You are free to experiment and take creative risks as you find your own voice within the form.
The burning part involves erasing lines. As its creator, Torrin A. Greathouse, explains: “Rather than the poem’s haiku existing exterior to the initial text, the haiku is derived, through a series of erasures, from the initial text itself. The haiku is a kind of hidden message, a moment of stark truth concealed beneath the lyricism of the initial text. The second intervention is that, unlike traditional haibun, which often exist as travelogs or meditations upon an external landscape, the burning haibun’s focus is upon the interior landscape of memory—an environment often rendered fragmentary by trauma”.
Burning haibuns often appear in my group workshops. They give people time to sit with an introspective piece, to explore, erase, and find the meaning in an event, memory, or wound. These poems invite participants to look at a moment in a new way, to reshape and rediscover its core. This practice can bring up strong emotions, and it is completely normal to feel challenged or even overwhelmed at times. It is always okay to pause, take a break, or seek support if you need it. Be gentle with yourself as you move through the process.
Some examples of burning haibuns:
- sundress: a burning haibun, by Winniebell Xinyu Zong, who talks about rape culture.
- dancing in the dark, by Torrin A. Greathouse, about the early stage of transitioning.
- burning haibun by Mary Lee Hahn
I invite you to give it a go. To help you get started, here is a simple step-by-step for creating your own burning haibun through erasure:
- Write your prose section about an event, memory, or feeling. (What is present in your mind today, or take a line from a song that is stuck in your mind and write from that)
- Reread your piece and highlight or underline any words or phrases that stand out, carry emotional weight, or feel essential to the core of your experience.
- Begin erasing lines or words that feel less crucial, leaving only those that best capture the heart of your prose. You are going to erase twice.
- Arrange what remains into a small poem or haiku, focusing on clarity and emotional truth.
- If you are typing your work, you can use this free online tool to do the blackout of your lines and reveal your haiku.
I’d love to read your haibuns. You can email them to me, or share them on social media @maria.ortega.garcia (Instagram) and tag me so I can see them. If you prefer to keep your work private, just let me know in your message, and I will always respect your request for privacy. There are no specific themes or deadlines, share anything inspired by the burning haibun process, at any time.
Join my newsletter to receive updates for upcoming workshops if you want to do burning haibuns (and other forms) in community.
