My start to poetry was during the late 60's -- when I was a graduate student in clinical psychology at the University of South Florida, and changed in mid-stream to creative writing. My grandmother got her master's degree in English in 1912, and, I believe that I felt compelled to write, as a result of biological inheritance (archetypes.)

My original start was in long poetry. I have been published, here and there and started playing with haiku in 1976, when I was distraught over a break-up and did not have the motivation to write prose. In 1996, I found several back issues of Modern Haiku at an estate sale for a dollar. I had been going through "dry" periods and haiku seemed like something to "pass the time." It "appeared" to be just "too easy," but, my countless rejection slips from Modern Haiku told me otherwise.

Before the advent of the Internet, I called Bob Spiess, who gave me a few hints about juxtaposition. Ferris Gilli took a few ku, and revised them for me. That was all it took and I was as hooked as a "junkie!" By virtue of juxtaposition, I began to see and experience nature more in my daily events. Nature is now paramount in my life, and for the first time, I planted a flower garden. It is now so apparent to me just how much I had been missing.

My haiku poems are published at Modern Haiku, Heron's Nest's (I have won various awards there), Haikulite, World Haiku Review (also selected in the WHF2000 Anthology competition), haijinx . To date, my biggest accomplishment was a fairly recent note from the late Bob Spiess telling me that he was really "enjoying" my haiku. 

I am not too big on contests, because I like to judge a poet by the essence of their work, and not one individual poem. Haiku has added a new dimension in my life, and has improved both my long poems as well as my prose. There will now be my life before and after haiku.

John W. Wisdom

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