spring-feverish

dandelions 
over-frolicking the lawn 
overwhelming the day 

*Poet’s Note

The OWP (One Word Prose) form of haibun and tanka prose explores how a single word can resonate with the title, the haiku or tanka, and the surrounding white space.

From the opening of a craft essay I’m developing, “One Word Prose in Haibun”:

In 2009, I once again came across Cor van den Heuvel’s one-word haiku, tundra. Then I noticed how other words—like tundra—held presence on their own. That led to a question: could a haibun exist with only one word in the prose? What would that even look like? There was no plan. The word “Wal-Mart” appeared, and from there came the title and the haiku. On a whim, I submitted my experiment to Contemporary Haibun Online:

https://contemporaryhaibunonline.com/chohtmlarchive/pages054/Tift_AGreat.html

Recently I shared “A Great American Past Time” on my Facebook page, and the resulting conversation made me realize that my 2009 one-off experiment might be something more.

Beverly A. Tift

writes haibun, tanka prose, and haiku. Her recent work explores the absurd, the surreal, and other oddities. Some of her work has also appeared in Contemporary Haibun Online, Drifting Sands Haibun, Frogpond Journal, Haibun Today, Heliosparrow Poetry Journal, The Heron’s Nest, Only Human, and Wales Haiku Journal.

Beverly invites you to stop by her Facebook page where she posts her newly published wonders, and flashbacks from 2007–2013 in no particular order: https://www.facebook.com/share/18r95gaQ1F/

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Coffee with Frida Kahlo, haibun story by Beverly A. Tift in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 32, June 2026)

⚡ 14 Code-ku and a code-bun by Tift in Heliosparrow Poetry Journal (August, June, March, and February 2026)

⚡ The Gift of Orion, haibun by Tift in Only Human: english language senryu (Issue 1.1, April 2026)