Doris Lynch
Permissions
Hurry past I suggest to the stars meandering over an Oregon mountain
Let them be I warn the horde of crows rasping through astronomical twilight
Dream on I advise our newborn, eyes stirring under her pale blue lids
Let it live I beg the spider ferrying an ant toward the web’s center
Free it now I order my cousin about her forty-year-old parrot forever caged
Drop them all I command the beech tree regarding its brassy leaves
Soft landing I suggest to the mountain goat leaping between peaks
Be forewarned I holler to a skein of geese shattering the lake’s twilight mirror
barred owls
call to each other
chaste moon
About the Author
Doris Lynch’s collections include Swimming to Alaska (Bottom Dog Press) and Meteor Hound, both published in 2023. She has won fellowships from the Alaska Council on the Arts, Indiana Arts Council, and the Chester H. Jones Foundation, and awards from the Poetry Society of America, Genjuan International Haibun Contest, and the Haiku Society of America Haibun Contest.
very interesting usage of haibun as innovative form.
love this!
marjorie
Thank you, Marjorie. A first of this form I’ve tried.
This is a very remarkable haibun—Ghazalesque.
Thank you, Joshua. Greatly appreciate your comment. I do write long form poetry too, but mostly free verse. The villanelle is my favorite category, those lines repeating in each verse make them very musical, closer to song. But the ghazal is a wonderful form too.
Super fine
Love this!
Thank you so much, E.L. Your praise matters a lot!!
I agree with the commenter who compares the above piece to a ghazal. Indeed, the ghazalesque features of “Permissions” can clearly be observed in its intricate refrains, allusive nature and fine couplets that are linked in their theme, end with the same rhyming pattern and have the same meter.