I was born and raised in Syracuse and still have a goodly number of family members to visit and think of there. My father could recite famous poems from memory, and that ignited in me a love for verse.

The haiku form shows in miniature what are often the hallmarks of all great art — compression and release. Compression, as you radically study it, and release, as you “get it,” or are magically moved by it. The State Fair attracts all of one's senses, and is a great place to practice the writing arts.