I am always so touched and impressed when people send me thoughtful gifts, because I am really terrible at it. I’m the Queen of the Gift Card… or the “Just-Tell-Me-What-You-Want-and-I’ll-Get-It-For-You.” Some people, like my sister, have a gift for gift-giving. Apparently, so does my Aunt Lee.

Aunt Lee sent me a vintage booklet of Japanese haiku. I’m calling it “vintage” because it was printed in 1962… that’s vintage, right? Of course, I live in Japan, so that makes sense. But a little-known fact about me is that I am also a (retired) poet. Most of the poems my Aunt Lee has seen are embarrassing to look at now, but I wrote some fairly legit stuff in my teen years, and I am published in a few anthologies (whatever that means.) I haven’t written any poems since high school, but I love that my Aunt Lee still sees me as a poet… or a writer, at least 🙂

It touched a nostalgic and buried part of my soul when I received Haiku Harvest. I’m already half-way through, and have written down some of my favorites in the lovely “Paris is Always a Good Idea” journal that she included in my surprise package.

Paris…poetry… Japan. Yep. Thank you, Aunt Lee.