Welcome, poets! I am your host, Frank J. Tassone, and today, we write haibun, that blend of prose-poetry and haiku. As Spring is underway, how about we embrace a traditional Spring Kigo: Cherry Blossoms!

Blooming from mid-March to late April, Cherry trees produce an array of beautiful flowers, whose colors embody Spring. Viewing the Cherry Blossoms (hanami) evolved as an important cultural ritual in Japan. Poets from the Heian era wrote many waka (tanka) that alluded to the blossoms. Basho continued this tradition in both his haiku and haibun writing, and other haiku poets followed his lead. Viewing Cherry Blossoms remains popular today, both in Japan and throughout the world. The United State’s National Cherry Blossom festival, for example, is an annual celebration in the nation’s capital.

Why Cherry Blossoms? How do these phenomena so captivate poets through the centuries? Well, their beauty is so fleeting…