Our Pitiful Metaphors, Haibun —by Jean LeBlanc

Our Pitiful Metaphors, Haibun —by Jean LeBlanc

Our Pitiful Metaphors, Haibun —by Jean LeBlanc

I have read the now and then haibun (poetic form combining prose poem and haiku) and while I found them interesting, that was it, okay for a onesie-twosie. This is a book of haibun, and it blew my socks off!

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Our Pitiful Metaphors, Haibun —by Jean LeBlanc

 Reviewed by Lenora Rain-Lee Good

Nonfiction / Poetry / Haibun

Cyberwit.net

December 18, 2021

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 8182538297

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-8182538290

74 pages

$15.00

5 Stars

I have read the now and then haibun (poetic form combining prose poem and haiku) and while I found them interesting, that was it, okay for a onesie-twosie. This is a book of haibun, and it blew my socks off!

Ms. LeBlanc knows her language, how to use it, stretch it, reshape it to her will. I love it when a book sends me to the dictionary, especially to double check a word that I thought I knew, but suddenly wasn’t so sure. And a couple I don’t think I’d ever met before.

Several of the prose pieces are sentence fragments, many lacking capital letters or even rudimentary punctuation, and they pack a wallop!

The first piece, on page 5, is titled ***,  begins, “work it out for yourself…words of unknown origin, words yet to be.” And from there, we do work it out ourselves as we put meaning and punctuation where it fits best at the time of reading. And there are pieces with new words.

I read this book straight through the first time. The second time I reread those that grabbed me the first time, and in many cases as I re-read a poem, I read it and caught a different meaning. I moved a comma in my mind to a new place. And some that didn’t grab me the first time through became the stars of the day sky when read again.

This is a book to be savored as a forgotten bottle of Port you just found in the back of your wine cellar, as the most elegant chocolate mousse you’ve ever eaten, as that final caress before you and your love slide into sleep.

The last page, origami, ends, “up to my thighs / in waterlily— / open, open”  Open this book, read it again and then read it again. Open, open…

                                                                                                                                    


Lenora Rain-Lee Good recently returned to her beloved Pacific Northwest from Albuquerque, New Mexico to dance in the rain and write. Part Native American (Catawba) she is fascinated with history, and often incorporates historical events in her writing. Her poetry has most recently appeared in Quill & Parchment and Five Willows Literary Review, both online literary magazines. Washington 129, anthology of Washington State Poetry, chosen by Tod Marshall, the Washington State Poet Laureate, 2016-2018 and her collection, Blood on the Ground: Elegies for Waiilatpu published by Redbat Press. She has been an Author-Editor in the aerospace industry, and an Instructor in the WAC. Besides writing and selling her poetry, she has sold novels, radio plays, photographs, and even a quilt. However, she's joking about dancing in the rain. One, she doesn't dance, and two, she lives in the desert part of Washington.