Andrea Grillo is a landscape designer, tree grower and tractor operator living and working on a nursery farm in northern NJ. Reading and writing haiku and tanka are very much a part of her everyday work and leisure.
1) Why do you write haiku?
I fell in love with haiku as a student in grammar school, lost touch until I discovered Cor van den Heuvel's The Haiku Anthology and became totally smitten with English-language haiku. After that I could not read enough. It was around the time that my father was dying and reading/writing haiku helped me deal with my grief. Haiku deepened my connection to nature on such a simple yet truthful level that it became a life-affirming daily practice. At the same time - it's also a great delight! I have a lot of fun writing and sharing my poems. Even my friends who don't know the difference between haiku and a good tattoo will come to me and say " I just had a haiku experience".
2) What other poetic forms do you enjoy?
I also enjoy tanka, haiga and (very short) free verse. I truly have a limited attention span.
3) Of the many wonderful haiku you've written, what do you consider to be your top three? (Please provide original publication credits.)
My three favorite poems at the present time:
Halloween...
she asks to borrow
my hippie jeans
The Heron's Nest - Volume X, Number 3
nowhere the wren song everywhere twilight
Presence #36
earthquake the night wobbles anyway
Presence #38
Thank you Curtis for providing a wonderful forum to get to know other poets a bit more personally and my own self too.
Andrea Grillo
Randolph, NJ
If you've been enjoying this weekly series and have not contributed, please consider sharing your response (whether it be for haiku or tanka) to the three little questions that Andrea answered. You must be a published poet in order to participate.
Carole MacRury will be our guest next week.
