One of the world’s most accomplished haiku and senryu poets, George Swede was born in Riga, Latvia, on November 20, 1940, and from the age of seven grew up in British Columbia, Canada: first in Oyama, Okanagan Valley, and then from age ten in Vancouver. He played sandlot ball during his teen years and liked to play first base. He throws and bats right-handed. Swede attended the University of British Columbia (BA in psychology), Dalhousie University (MA), and studied at Indiana University. He’s lived in Toronto since 1967, where he has had a long career at Ryerson Polytechnic University. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Psychology and the School of Justice Studies.
Just as Canada has teams in U.S. baseball leagues, most notably the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League, and Canadians play for American baseball teams, George is on our roster of American Baseball Haiku Poets. George was a Blue Jays season ticket-holder for about five years during the time the team won its two World Series, 1992 and 1993. He first learned about haiku in 1968 during a creative writing class at the Three Schools of Art in Toronto and even wrote a few, but he didn’t became seriously interested in writing haiku until 1976 when he was asked to review Makoto Ueda’s Modern Japanese Haiku: An Anthology. He published his first haiku in Bonsai in 1977. The same year, with Eric Amann and Betty Drevniok, he cofounded the Haiku Society of Canada. He has published many books of haiku and other poetry. His latest haiku book is Almost Unseen from Brooks Books.
empty baseball field
a dandelion seed floats through
the strike zone
village ball game
through knotholes in the old fence
evening sunbeams
crack of the bat
the outfielder circles under
the full moon