No man, or: Eucalyptus

Posted on by ben Alexander

A haibun

‘No man is an island’ must be one of the most well-known clichés in the book. I mean, sure, it’s fundamentally true in a technical sense – almost no person on Earth is entirely self-sufficient when it comes to the food (s)he eats or the clothing (s)he wears.

But something so resoundingly self-evident can’t be the meaning of this popular idiom, can it?

Humans are social creatures for the most part, but I’ve known some who are most comfortable spending their days alone. Others tend to judge them as asocial and stick them with various derogatory labels and mean-spirited, ignorant diagnoses… But that speaks more to their personal discomfort with those that exhibit confidence enough to march to their own tunes.

eucalyptus trunk
offers sweet serenity
koala me-time

Go Dog Go Cafe’s Haibun Wednesday

  • This week’s prompt is to write a haibun based upon the prompt word ‘cliché’.
  • From Poetry.org:
    • In How to Haiku, Bruce Ross writes, “If a haiku is an insight into a moment of experience, a haibun is the story or narrative of how one came to have that experience.”

Eugi’s Weekly Prompt

Eugi has provided the word “island” as a writing prompt today.

Let’s write poetry together!

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

–Ben Harper (b. 1969)

Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!

26 thoughts on “No man, or: Eucalyptus”

  5. Whether we are alone or in a crowd our actions impact others…It is that interdependence and connectedness that prevents us from being an island….

  6. Those disposed to the introverted side of the spectrum may say on some days: “some times a wo/man likes to be like an island standing alone”

  8. A superb haibun, David. I enjoyed your prose and the cliche “no man is an island”. plus the haiku is delightful. Thank you so much for joining in.

  12. John Donne, who said this during one of his sermons, meant this in the context of (anti)-isolationism, rather than individuality. That was over 400-years ago. Isolationism is still a divisive topic, don’t you think? 😀

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