• https://tomclausen.wordpress.com/
  • Mann Library reading 4-21-09

tom clausen

~ poems and photos

Category Archives: Tom Clausen biographical info

feelings in solitude

18 Saturday Jun 2022

Posted by Tom Clausen in haiku, Modern Haiku, Published Poems, senryu, Tom Clausen biographical info

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

biographical info, haiku, Modern Haiku, poetry, Published Poems, senryu

Also living in New York state, but tending to write haiku about more cheerful, domestic scenes, is Tom Clausen. Though he treats the ups and downs of marriage and being a parent, his experience seems to have been that the ups seem to make up for the downs. He first learned of haiku in the early 1980s when a friend gave him the “Autumn” book of R.H. Blyth’s four-volume Haiku. Though he was interested, he did not seriously take up the genre until 1988, after he read an article about Ruth Yarrow, who was then living in Ithaca, N.Y.

Clausen has lived almost all his life in Ithaca. He was born there on August 1, 1951, and lives there now, in his childhood home with his wife and two children (and two cats). He writes that his parents encouraged him to keep a journal at a very young age. By the time he went to college he was “well into the habit of writing to record experiences and to find expression for thoughts and feelings in solitude.” After college (Cornell University, 1973) he took a series of bicycle trips in North and Central America and helped develop his literary skills by writing letters about his experiences on the road. By 1980 he had begun to write what he “hoped were poems.”

Many of Clausen’s haiku are about his family and his relationships with his children and his wife. This emphasis may show Yarrow’s influence on his work. Here is a senryu about his daughter and another about his wife and cat, which presumably refers to something the poet has said (or it could be understood as a small child mimicking an adult):

after speaking importantly
   she quickly resumes
   sucking her thumb

to the cat
“that’s complete and
utter nonsense”

Clausen writes,

Haiku has consistently appealed to me as a means of centering, focusing, sharing, and responding to a life and world bent on excess. As the layers of my own life have accumulated, I’ve often felt overwhelmed by both personal changes and the mass of news, information, and survival requirements that come with being human these days. Haiku are for me a means of honoring and celebrating simple yet profound relationships that awaken in us, with a gentle and silent inner touch, a spiritual relevance that adds meaning to our lives.

He, too, has practiced Zen meditation and looks on haiku as a tool for “spiritual tuning and guidance, shining light on the way we go.”

Clausen joined the Haiku Society of America and Haiku Canada in 1988. He sometimes attends HSA meetings in New York City where he has had contact with such poets as Stevenson, Dee Evetts, and L.A. Davidson. He has self-published three small chapbooks of his haiku, in 1994, 1995, and 1998. A collection of his tanka, A Work of Love, was published in 1997 by Tiny Poems Press. In 2000 Snapshot Press in England published Homework, a book of his haiku. It was a small collection about, once again, family life. Clausen also writes haiku with a more traditional focus on nature. Here are two: the first one has a very strong sense of sabi and the second shows a bonding with the world of wild nature—and more sabi.

twilight
the only car ahead
turns off

       snow flurrying . . .
the deer, one by one, look back
       before they vanish


excerpt from an essay in Modern Haiku- “American Haiku’s Future” by Cor van den Heuvel


Modern Haiku v. 34: no.3 2003 Autumn

word thursday reading

17 Friday Jun 2022

Posted by Tom Clausen in haiku, Readings, senryu, Tom Clausen biographical info

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

biographical info, haiku, poetry, Readings

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.

Laughing To Myself

16 Thursday Jun 2022

Posted by Tom Clausen in Book reviews, haiku, Laughing To Myself, Published Poems, senryu, Tom Clausen biographical info

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Book reviews, Free Food Press, haiku, Laughing To Myself, poetry, Published Poems, senryu

Laughing To Myself

A collection of haiku and senryu by Tom Clausen, a favorite poet of many readers of haiku. Tom has been writing haiku for over twenty years and has enchanted readers with his very personal outlook on family, nature and living in this modern world. Tom opens his heart so that those who read his poems not only feel like they know him, but because his poems touch a universal chord readers also feel like they know themselves a bit better too.

before sleep
 laughing to myself
           at myself

Since 1989, when Tom Clausen first came onto the haiku scene, he has been in the forefront of English language haiku, senryu, haibun and tanka.  Tom was a pioneer in the haiku movement that let haiku not only roam through the natural world, but let it into our cities, homes, and all other aspects of our modern world. No other haiku poet has so openly let the reader into his life and into his heart.  Tom, while retaining his individual voice,  manages to convey the aspiration and angst of all of us who live in this modern world and does so with a wry and whimsical smile. This collection which spans the entire 24 years of Tom’s insightful, honest and often humorous poetry will give those who know Tom’s work a chance to revisit old favorites and find gems they might haves missed and give those less familiar with Tom’s work a chance to see why he is one of the most influential haiku and senryu poets of his generation.

bitter wind-
we circle our candles
for peace


Review by Alan Summers

haibun

16 Thursday Jun 2022

Posted by Tom Clausen in haibun, Tom Clausen biographical info

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

biographical info, haibun, poetry

about haibun :

“Whether we think of our life as special or not, in the flow of experience come special moments that punctuate our sensibility and memory. Haibun are records and renderings of our passage through life, and an attempt to distill the highlights of our very diverse experiences. The poem that typically concludes the haibun ought to reflect the heart of our inner understanding of outward experience.”



Tom Clausen was born in Ithaca, New York, in 1951 and continues to be a resident of this isolated finger lakes college town. Today, Tom shares the same house he grew up in with Berta and their two children, Casey and Emma. Tom has worked for more than twenty years at Cornell University in the Mann Library where he coordinates the staff and student assistants in the document services–circulation department. Tom graduated from Cornell in 1973 and after several years of bicycle trip adventures, he settled back where he started. His books include Autumn Wind in the Cracks, Unraked Leaves, and Standing Here (1994, 1995, 1998; all self-published) and A Work of Love (Tiny Poems Press, 1997).

Recent Posts

  • Ghosts of North Dakota Photos to Enter Public Domain
  • her perfume
  • bedridden
  • the news
  • in all directions

Categories

  • A Work of Love (3)
  • abandoned buildings (17)
  • Akitsu Quarterly (3)
  • American Haibun & Haiga (3)
  • americana (193)
  • autumn (160)
  • barns (11)
  • bees (8)
  • bicycles and cycling (4)
  • birds (25)
  • Book reviews (5)
  • bottle rockets (7)
  • brass bell (2)
  • butterflies (7)
  • cats (7)
  • cemeteries (7)
  • Chapbooks (9)
  • close up details (269)
  • clouds (77)
  • Cornell (4)
  • deer (24)
  • Dim Sum (3)
  • dragonflies (5)
  • Favorite Haiku (3)
  • fields (70)
  • flowers (61)
  • forests (5)
  • Frogpond (20)
  • frogs (6)
  • fungus (5)
  • gardens (39)
  • gorges (51)
  • Gusts (3)
  • haibun (5)
  • haiku (296)
  • Haiku Way of Life (6)
  • hedgerow (1)
  • Heron's Nest (1)
  • hills and mountains (38)
  • horses (1)
  • ice (8)
  • Ithaca (223)
  • lakes and rivers (65)
  • landscapes (238)
  • Laughing To Myself (2)
  • leaves (106)
  • Lynx,, tanka (3)
  • mailboxes (2)
  • Mexico (2)
  • Modern Haiku (24)
  • moon (10)
  • nature (433)
  • ocean imagery (11)
  • Old Vehicles (8)
  • otata (1)
  • parks (73)
  • paths (92)
  • Peru (19)
  • photos (97)
  • plants (80)
  • poems and photos (969)
  • ponds (36)
  • Published Poems (76)
  • puddles (14)
  • Readings (2)
  • reflections (41)
  • roads (25)
  • rust (8)
  • sea shore (2)
  • senryu (43)
  • snow (21)
  • spring (68)
  • squirrels (7)
  • summer (133)
  • sun (29)
  • sunsets (33)
  • tanka (31)
  • Tom Clausen biographical info (4)
  • Tom poems at other sites (12)
  • Tom selected favorites (14)
  • trains (12)
  • trees (149)
  • turtles (7)
  • Wabi Sabi (184)
  • water reflections (91)
  • waterfalls (30)
  • winter (50)
  • Woodnotes (1)

Blogroll

  • American Tanka
  • Blogging Along Tobacco Road
  • bottle rockets press
  • Charlotte Digregorio's Writer's Blog
  • Donna the Buffalo
  • Haiga Online
  • Haiku Canada
  • Haiku Society of America
  • Issa's Untidy Hut
  • Living Haiku Anthology
  • Living Senryu Anthology
  • Mann Library Daily Haiku
  • Michele Harvey
  • Modern Haiku
  • Red Moon Press
  • Snapshot Press
  • Tanka Society of America
  • Terebess Asia Online
  • The Heron's Nest
  • Tiny Words
  • Tom Clausen Twitter
  • Turtle Light Press
  • Upstate Dim Sum
  • You Tube Tom Clausen

Published poems

  • Modern Haiku
  • Akitsu Quarterly
  • ephemerae
  • Mayfly
  • Frogpond
  • Heron’s Nest
  • Woodnotes
  • Gusts
  • red lights
  • Haiku Canada
  • Raw Nervz
  • American Tanka
  • Dim Sum
  • Haiku Headlines
  • Ribbons
  • Haiku Quarterly
  • bottle rockets
  • South by Southeast
  • black bough
  • Heron’s Nest
  • Frogpond
  • Akitsu Quarterly
  • Modern Haiku
  • Mayfly
  • Haiku Canada

Archives

  • September 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • July 2021
  • April 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • June 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • August 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013

Recent Comments

Aden C on listening to the silence…
Tom Clausen –… on Homework
Tom Clausen –… on Standing Here
Tom Clausen –… on A Work of Love
Tom Clausen –… on Unraked Leaves

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Categories

  • A Work of Love (3)
  • abandoned buildings (17)
  • Akitsu Quarterly (3)
  • American Haibun & Haiga (3)
  • americana (193)
  • autumn (160)
  • barns (11)
  • bees (8)
  • bicycles and cycling (4)
  • birds (25)
  • Book reviews (5)
  • bottle rockets (7)
  • brass bell (2)
  • butterflies (7)
  • cats (7)
  • cemeteries (7)
  • Chapbooks (9)
  • close up details (269)
  • clouds (77)
  • Cornell (4)
  • deer (24)
  • Dim Sum (3)
  • dragonflies (5)
  • Favorite Haiku (3)
  • fields (70)
  • flowers (61)
  • forests (5)
  • Frogpond (20)
  • frogs (6)
  • fungus (5)
  • gardens (39)
  • gorges (51)
  • Gusts (3)
  • haibun (5)
  • haiku (296)
  • Haiku Way of Life (6)
  • hedgerow (1)
  • Heron's Nest (1)
  • hills and mountains (38)
  • horses (1)
  • ice (8)
  • Ithaca (223)
  • lakes and rivers (65)
  • landscapes (238)
  • Laughing To Myself (2)
  • leaves (106)
  • Lynx,, tanka (3)
  • mailboxes (2)
  • Mexico (2)
  • Modern Haiku (24)
  • moon (10)
  • nature (433)
  • ocean imagery (11)
  • Old Vehicles (8)
  • otata (1)
  • parks (73)
  • paths (92)
  • Peru (19)
  • photos (97)
  • plants (80)
  • poems and photos (969)
  • ponds (36)
  • Published Poems (76)
  • puddles (14)
  • Readings (2)
  • reflections (41)
  • roads (25)
  • rust (8)
  • sea shore (2)
  • senryu (43)
  • snow (21)
  • spring (68)
  • squirrels (7)
  • summer (133)
  • sun (29)
  • sunsets (33)
  • tanka (31)
  • Tom Clausen biographical info (4)
  • Tom poems at other sites (12)
  • Tom selected favorites (14)
  • trains (12)
  • trees (149)
  • turtles (7)
  • Wabi Sabi (184)
  • water reflections (91)
  • waterfalls (30)
  • winter (50)
  • Woodnotes (1)

Archives

  • September 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • July 2021
  • April 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • June 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • August 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
Follow tom clausen on WordPress.com

Recent Comments

Aden C on listening to the silence…
Tom Clausen –… on Homework
Tom Clausen –… on Standing Here
Tom Clausen –… on A Work of Love
Tom Clausen –… on Unraked Leaves

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • tom clausen
    • Join 351 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • tom clausen
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...