Poet Profile

Naomi Beth Wakan

Naomi Beth Wakan is an essayist and poet who has written over thirty books. She has hosted a haiku gathering at her home on Gabriola for the last nine years. She is at present writing a book on tanka with her co-writer Professor Sonja Arntzen.

Books Published: Haiku - One Breath Poetry [An American Library Selection] (Heian International); My Haiku Family (Bevalia Press); Double Take [(co-written with Sonja Arntzen] (Modern English Tanka Press); Sex After 70 and other poems [contains a large number of her haiku, tanka and longer poems] (Bevalia Press).

New Year’s Eve
clearing out the drawer I find 
a list of things to do

heavy snowfall
silent, so silent
even the fridge

no paper
I write a haiku
on a shell

trees, mist, mountains,
trees, mist, mountains,
west coast morning

reaching
to her breast scar, he cups
his hand

cleaning house
after the haiku meet…
one poem lingers

Credits: All selections are from Sex After 70 and other poems (Bevalia Press, Toronto,2010).