Research
Robert Spiess: In His Own Words
At his request, I conducted an interview with Robert Spiess on April 25, 1988. At the appointed time I arrived at Bob’s small cottage in Middleton, Wisconsin with a small and very inexpensive cassette tape recorder. He had typed up a script from which we conducted the interview.
Recently I discovered the original cassette tape of our interview session. After I listened to the recording two or three times I was convinced that haiku poets would appreciate hearing Bob discuss his history with haiku, give his definition of haiku, and read his own haiku in his own voice. To that end, I had the interview professionally cleaned up and converted to a digital format for posting on this website. I hope you will agree that this interview is both enlightening and of great historical value.
Mark Alan Osterhaus
Would you like to tell us something about your involvement with haiku? I understand that you have been writing haiku for quite a number of years.
What is the definition of haiku, or how do you envision what haiku are?
Would you like to read some of your Haiku?