Susan Delphine Delaney MD, MS is a psychiatrist practicing in Plano, Texas, assisted by her therapy dog, Gabriella. She has been writing haiku since 1968, introduced to the small poem when a friend gave her a book that featured Basho and Issa. Her haiku have been published in Frogpond, Modern Haiku, South by Southeast, bottle rockets, Simply Haiku, Woodnotes, Tundra, Persimmon, Medscape, World Haiku Review, Heron Quarterly, 3LightsGallery, Electronic Poetry Network, Kamakura Shrine One, Sketchbook, Haiku Page, the Chesapeake Bay Sajiki. Her poems have also been anthologized in the Basho Festival Anthology ('04,'05,'06), Red Moon Anthology, and Small Canyons (I, II, III).Susan was the founding Vice President of the Fort Worth Haiku Society, and last year founded Haiku Poets of North Texas.
1. Why do you write haiku?
Like all haiku poets, I have a spiritual restlessness that finds peace in haiku moments - moments that exist outside of time - moments filled with meaning.
Like all haiku poets, I yearn to share these moments with others, to bring to others the same peace that I found in my haiku moment.
I often read haiku to settle me before sleep. I read from my own 'Lifelist', or from the work of others.
2. What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
Although I expect to spend the rest of my life becoming an excellent haiku poet, I occasionally write a senryu, a tanka, a haibun or free verse.
3. Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)
One of my fondest memories is of Dad bundling the five us up, still in our pajamas, and driving us downtown to watch the sun rise thru the cherry blossoms at the Tidal Basin.
cherry petals
street dancing
on windswells
Basho Festival Anthology 2005
I remember walking before dawn and enjoying comet Hale-Bopp. A man, already dressed for work, came out to get his paper. I asked him if he had seen the comet. He excitedly talked of a cyberspace visit with Bopp the night before. I asked him again if he had seen the comet. He looked at me quizzically. I pointed to the comet, then moved on to let him enjoy it in real space.
crackling campfire
the comet's tail
streams toward morning
Small Canyons Anthology II
And a celebration of single life:
sipping champagne
enjoying the tiny sounds
of living alone
bottle rockets V4, #1
Red Moon Anthology 2002
If you've been enjoying this weekly series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response to the three little questions that Susan answered. You must be a published poet to participate.
Ed Baker will be our guest poet next week.
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