Meet Our October 2007
Featured Poet

~ Susan Constable ~

Susan Constable I think I started writing when I fell in love at the age of 15! I'd kept a journal as a teenager and, in grade 12, was the editor of our high school literary magazine. After that, writing was put aside for about 30 years, except for the occasional 'stress poem'. After the sudden death of our twenty-two year-old son in 1995, I again found myself writing poetry on a regular basis. Along with recording my dreams, writing became a way to explore my emotions and begin some kind of healing. At first, I wrote mostly form poetry (abecedarians , glosas, pantoums , villanelles , etc.), followed by several years of free verse. In 2006, a friend suggested I enter a haiku in the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival. I'd never really tried haiku, but the contest had no entry fee! Besides, no one knew me, so what did I have to lose? When both of my poems were placed in the Highly Commended category, I decided to write a few more. My haiku and senryu have now been published in numerous on-line and print journals in Canada, the U.S., and Australia. This year (2007), I'm trying my hand at haiga and am thoroughly enjoying it. Learning to combine the right photograph with a meaningful haiku is very challenging, but incredibly satisfying . . . and extremely addictive. I have self-published a very small run of three books: Forever 22, the story of losing a child and surviving grief; Remember Me, a chapbook of poems that speak of loss; and Sunshine and Shadows, a book of selected poems taken from my work up until 2004. One day, perhaps, I'll compile my haiku and haiga . . . unless another form captures my attention in the meantime!