On a wintry day in Nebraska, while sitting at my second grade desk, I looked out the window and became rapt with a glorious red Northern Cardinal perched against a backdrop of fresh fallen snow. A few weeks later I researched and composed my first publication, “The Bird Book”. In third grade I became enthralled with Great Plains and Native American history. In my ensuing formative years, to perhaps help cope with my parent’s divorce, I became a sports addict. The diamonds, gyms, and fields were my sacred spaces. The games and practices, my meditation. After high school, I learned formal Meditation and hitchhiked around the country, carrying the “Tao Te Ching” and “Be Here Now” by Ram Dass as my guides. The “Writer’s Workshop” at UNO further kindled my passion for poetry. I continued to write in a variety of genres, including an ongoing poetry column in a small town newspaper and a personal interest/humor column called “Walking the Dog”.

Upon retiring from my profession as a Psychotherapist, I decided to delve into the study and writing of haiku in earnest. This will be a life long process, dancing to the rhythm of learning, letting go, learning, letting go. I like to think the above experiences were bread crumbs leading to this sublime art form. My love of birds, life on the Great Plains, and memories of baseball still awakens my heart to the “Now” where the spirit of haiku moments abide.

I would like to thank the following journals and their editors for giving some of my work a home; Akitsu Quarterly, Autumn Moon, Bottle Rockets, Cattails, Failed Haiku, Frameless Sky, Haibun Today, Haiku Foundation, The Heron’s Nest, Frogpond, Mariposa, Modern Haiku, Snapshot Press, Sonic Boom, Stardust Haiku, and a variety of Anthologies. A special thanks to Stanford Forrester (sekiro) and cafe nietzsche press for editing and publishing my collection of baseball haiku, “extra innings”.