WORD THURSDAYS FEATURING TOM CLAUSEN AND CHRISTINA M. RAU

MAY 24, 2018 @ 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Tom Clausen (Ithaca, NY) is a life-long Ithacan living in the same house he grew up in.  He became interested in haiku and related short forms of poetry in the late 1980s after reading an article about naturalist Ruth Yarrow, profiling her haiku. There was instant recognition that haiku was a form that might help with his tendency with wordiness, repetition, and overstatement. He has been reading and trying to write haiku, senryu, tanka, and haibun since then. Tom is the curator of a daily haiku feature, online, at Mann Library, Cornell University where he worked for more than 35 years before retiring in 2013. In 2003, Tom was invited to join the Route 9 Haiku group that formed in 2001. The group publishes a twice-yearly journal, Dim Sum, featuring selected work by members John Stevenson, Hilary Tann, Yu Chang, Tom Clausen and a guest poet as well as a couple of haiga by Romanian artist  and poet Ion Codrescu. Tom has several books published including Growing Late and Homework from Snap Shot Press in UK and most recently Laughing To Myself from Free Food Press. Tom enjoys walking, biking, photography and simply going about observing and documenting moments, beauty and wabi sabi all around us. Website: www.tomclausen.com.