'Have I sent you the haibun on my walk?", Prof. Alan Maley emailed me one day.  At first, I honestly thought it was a typo - I thought what he meant was the haiku.  And since he forgot to paste the particular write-up at that time, so I safely presumed that it was indeed a typo.  That was the first time I heard the mention of haibun.

When Alan finally sent me an example of a haibun based on his routine morning walk, I was overwhelmed by that piece.  The narrative was so warm and vivid, evoking all my senses.  I felt like I was there, seeing what he saw, idly strolling the pathway; feeling what he felt; touching the little flowers he touched; listening to the brush of the fresh morning breeze.  I did not expect a description on something as simple as a morning walk could be that beautiful.  And the poems in betweeen were unpretentious, and they were exquisitely executed.  Instantly I thought of my Creative Writing (CW) class. With Alan's accompanying notes on haibun and poems, I eagerly looked forward for my next class.

My 19 CW students are undergraduates at a very impressionable age of 20-22.  They are very colourful, a mixed of ability and attitude. But one thing in common is that they all love writing.  When I first mentioned to them that we were going out of the class for a short walk around the faculty - something unconventional for a language class here in my country - it was received with a mixed reaction.  The more easy-going and adventurous ones were really elated to the ceiling and received it with a "Yesss!!  Alllrightt!!"; the follow-the book ones were a little hesitant and worrisome, receiving it with a "Walk? Outside?  Is it legal?"; the vanity fair ones who are not too keen to expose themselves to the bad 5 pm rays without sf sunblock went "You mean now, as in now?".

I then discussed with my students on what haibun is, citing Alan's brilliant piece.  And since in haibuns, narratives are intertwined with short poems, so I went on to touch a bit on writing poems.  The students were a little more worried on the poem part.  I tried not to intimidate them, so I assured them that in writing the poem bit of the haibun,anything is acceptable, that there is no right or wrong.  If their poems are not understood, treat it as an abstract - abstracts are not meant to be understood anyway. That made them feel a whole lot better.

I gave them a final briefing on safety as we gathered at the car lot before the walk.