Haibun Hybrid Poem

It is often said that as writers and poets- 'First we imitate, then we innovate.' 

When I first wrote a haibun poem I followed the structure and form without question. Since that time I have written numerous poems in this classic Japanese poetry form. 

Among my personal poetry collection I own a copy of Robert Wood Lynn's 'Mothman Apologia' In this anthology the poet innovates with a variety of layouts for his poems. He writes a series of ten elegies where there is a complete absence of punctuation and adopts layouts with multiple blocks of justified text. He is challenging visual norms. These considered actions focused my reading. 

All this brings me to this week's poem. I have presented it as a haibun, but have consciously removed punctuation a la Robert Wood Lynn to make it a hybrid presentation. 

My poem tells the story of a coal delivery man in England in the 1920's. 'Alfred, The Coalman Cometh' could also be categorized as docupoetry, or an ode, perhaps. Some degree of reading and research was required in the making of this poem. 

Alfred Wright was in fact, my great uncle and lived in Kent, England.

Alfred, The Coalman, Cometh

 

Alfred delivered coal a coalman with a horse drawn cart a cart special for its purpose the coalman delivered to homes in sacks often arriving at the rear of houses where a coal bunker was located the sacks packed in hundredweights of coal were extremely heavy to carry the bunker a flat platform allowed coalmen to drag rather than lift  the heavy bags onto their backs removable ropes round the sack kept them in place while the cart was moving blinkers were always worn by workhorses on the streets blocking  anything but a straight ahead view for them it kept them calmer more controllable those horses steered gently with a slight pull on the bit in their mouth although they usually got to know a delivery route and the way back to base without additional action from the driver nose bags filled with food were worn round the horses necks so they could eat at their leisure as Alfred left customers might tip him two pennies a lot of money back then Alfred might respectfully doff his hat in acknowledgement of the tip such tips presumed he would remember to be careful not to touch the walls or knock anything over next time being a coalman was dirty work for men like Alfred and the heavy bags they hefted were dusty and dirty too such labourious demanding work

The coalman cometh

Toting cumbersome coal bags

Warming hearth and home

It is Poetry Friday and our host this time is Carol Varsalona. Carol alerts us the 'Art of Summering. Summering is defined as a state of mind that brings feelings of joy and relaxation. It revolves around the best of summertime and the ability to savour those feelings year-round.