Poet Profile

Lesley Anne Swanson

Lesley discovered tanka in 2011 and the haiku bug bit the following year. She has always been a wordsmith—journalist, book editor, technical writer, and eventually a psychologist. She grew up in Northern California, but has also lived in the Southwest, Texas, and the Pacific Northwest. Those varied landscapes pervade her poems, often with a cosmic twist.

Awards and Other Honors: Honorable Mention, San Francisco International Tanka Contest (2011); First Place, Certificate of Merit, Japan Poets’ Society, 7th International Tanka Festival Competition (2012); Honorable Mention, Tanka Society of America International Contest (2012); Third Place, San Francisco International Tanka Contest (2013); Runner-up, The Haiku Calendar Competition (Snapshot Press, 2013); First Place, Tanka Society of America International Contest (2014); Runner-up, The Haiku Calendar Competition (Snapshot Press, 2014); Honorable Mention, San Francisco International Senryu Contest (2014); Runner-up, The Haiku Calendar Competition [two haiku] (Snapshot Press, 2015); Third Place, Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award Competition (2015); work selected for Haiku 2015, edited by Scott Metz & Lee Gurga (Modern Haiku Press, 2015); Third Place, Haiku Poets of Northern California International Tanka Contest (2015); Certificate of Merit (top prize), 8th Japan Tanka Society International Contest (2016); Honorable Mention, Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award Competition (2016); Runner-up, The Haiku Calendar Competition (Snapshot Press, 2016); Runner-up, The Haiku Calendar Competition (Snapshot Press, 2017); Honorable Mention, Haiku Society of America Haibun Contest (2017); First Place, San Francisco International Tanka Contest (2017).

the first crocus humming Vivaldi

misty drizzle
the plover's footprints
becoming sand

that old tune . . .
knots in my shoelace
coming loose

first day of May
the woodchuck’s cheek
full of flowers

heirloom grain
we share the last slice
of buttermilk rye

ordinary morning
the cat grooming
anyway

Credits: "the first crocus" - a hundred gourds 3:3 (2014); Haiku 2015, edited by Lee Gurga and Scott Metz (Modern Haiku Press, 2015); "that old tune" - Third Place, Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award Competition (2015); Modern Haiku (Summer, 2015); "heirloom grain" - Mariposa 30 (Spring 2014); "misty drizzle" - Runner-up, The Haiku Calendar Competition (Snapshot Press, 2017); The Haiku Calendar 2018 (Snapshot Press, 2017); "first day of May" - The Heron’s Nest XVI:4 (December 2014); Runner-up, The Haiku Calendar Competition (Snapshot Press, 2016); The Haiku Calendar 2017 (Snapshot Press, 2016); "ordinary morning" – Honorable Mention, Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Award Competition (2016); Modern Haiku 47:2 (Summer, 2016).