Three Haibun in Memory of Dolly Parton (1946-2026)
Figure: Dolly Parton, publicity photograph, RCA Records, 22 Mar. 1977. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
[1] Smitten with the Hills
As a “flatlander,” I discovered the beauty of the Ozarks nearly ten years ago while driving in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri. The radio was playing Dolly Parton’s twangy song about lost love, and the hills along the winding road were covered with glittery fall leaves. Later, I discovered the same beauty while reading Harold Bell Wright’s novel The Shepherd of the Hills (1907), in which the author praises the region’s forest-clad hills and valleys. The Ozark Plateau has become my newest passion, and I deem myself a suburbanite who is a hillbilly—a ridge runner—at heart.
riding a bike
in my native village
autumn dream
[Originally published in Spare Mule 24.2, March 2022; reprinted in Wild Muse: Ozarks Nature Poetry (edited by Phillip Howerton, Cornerpost Press, 2022); included in To the Hills and Hollows: Haibun and Tanka Prose (Cyberwit, 2023)]
[2] A Sea of Suffering: Notes from Korea
(An excerpt)
[...]
Another peasant in her eighties recently lost her husband of almost seventy years. Living without her lifelong companion terrified her so much at night that she begged her divorced son to move into her house. He has complied, and she feels better now. “It is hard to endure the reality of not having my husband anymore,” she says, “but what can I do?” More outgoing than the woman who lost her son, she then smiles, gets on her small motorcycle, waves at me, and zooms away.
Ozark hills
Dolly Parton’s breakup song
among fall colors
[Originally published in POMPA: Publications of the Mississippi Philological Association 36 (2019)]
[3] The Passing of an Icon
Today, Dolly Parton died of cancer in Nashville. An old poet friend of mine in Illinois, who knew of my admiration for the country singer, emailed me a message. Under the heading “Dolly Passing,” he wrote, “I am sorry, as I know you are, to hear of Dolly’s passing—your favorite country music singer! She, of course, was so much more; they have had continual media coverage of her all day. I was part of a poetry reading in West Plains that had some connection to her literary program, which provides books for children.”
As someone who does not watch TV, I did not hear the news until my friend’s email arrived. Having lived for eighty years and done so much for others, Dolly had a good life and will be remembered fondly by her fans. I don’t listen to her songs daily as I once did, but she was a truly gifted artist who also served as an inspiration for my own poetry writing in my fifties and sixties. I appreciate her humble background, her accomplishments, and, above all, her generosity and graciousness.
a favorite singer’s death—
pausing for
her Google images
[Composed on August 25, 2026]
About the Author
Professor of English and Creative Writing and Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and Theology, Missouri Baptist University
John J. Han, PhD, is the author, editor, co-editor, or translator of 36 books. His forthcoming book, Echoes from the Hills: Critical Essays on Ozarks Literature (co-edited with C. Clark Triplett), will be published by the University of Arkansas Press. He has also published more than 3,000 poems, primarily haiku, in a wide range of journals and anthologies. In addition to his long tenure at Missouri Baptist University, he has taught at Kansas State University, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Nebraska Wesleyan University, and Washington University in St. Louis. He has also served as a visiting scholar at Georgia College & State University and the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.
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