Whether we write haibun or  any form of prose, composing in the present tense adds  sparkle to a piece.

In this lock-down world, I’m rereading published haibun I wrote years ago..  I’m the first to admit  so much of what I wrote then  has a flat dead quality.  But there’s no time like the present to freshen up old writings–to be here now.

It’s automatic to write in the past tense because, let’s face it, we’re no longer living in that moment. The image that comes to my mind is a mother pulling her child away from a busy street. We are at once the child and  the mother. We don’t let the child run off unattended. The same goes for my writing–I’m always the child writing fast about what “happened,” but I’m also the mother who is in charge.