Ed Baker
(19 April 1941 – 28 March 2016)

“what's a 'haiku', anyway? I do "shorties"...” (Ed Baker)


American haiku poet and artist Ed Baker was born in Washington, D.C. on 19 April 1941. He received his BA in English/History from the University of Maryland in 1967 and his MA from Johns Hopkins University in 1971. Ed described himself as being happily divorced, the father of two adult children, and as an "everyday writer," "everyday artist," and "everyword reader," having to his credit over 2500 watercolors, 75,000 poems, and 500 3-d pieces.

Ed lived in Takoma Park, Maryland, and his poetry and artwork, including haibun and haiga, appeared in many journals: Athanor, Frogpond, Odysseus, Hummingbird, South by Southeast, Modern Haiku, Lilliput, Bongos of the Lord, mojo risin, Iconoclast, Calvert Review, RawNervz, Liquid Ohio, Moonset Journal, Haigaonline, World Haiku Review, Origin, Longhouse, Simply Haiku, and Moonset, the Newspaper.

Ed Baker’s style of writing and painting is probably best described in a review to Ed’s book Stone Girl E-Pic, where John Mingay writes that the author maintained “an artistic integrity that's pure and traditional... an admirable integrity that's attributable directly to calligraphy, collage and minimalist writing. Though, how could it be otherwise? The electro-mechanical drone of a computer would be hard to reconcile with an artist for whom, 'Everything comes out of silence and goes back into silence'. ”

Ed Baker died after surgery on 28 March 2016.

Books Published:

Butcher of Oxen (Doxie Press, 1972);
The City (Red Ochre Press, 1972);
This Wood (Red Ochre Press, 1982);
Hexapoem I, II, & III (Red Ochre Press, 1994);
Nine Perfect Ensos (Red Ochre Press, 2000);
Shrike (Tel-Let, 2000);
Song of Chin (draft #12) (tel let, 2005);
Wild Orchid [w/sumi-e by Fay Chin] (tel let, 2002);
Things Just Come Through (Red Ochre Press, 2005);
Twenty-Four Ways of Seeing [w/sumi-e by Fay Chin] (tel let, 2002);
Okeanos Rhoos (Johns Hopkins, 1972);
RESTORATION LETTERS: correspondence 1972-1978 (Cid Corman-Ed Baker);
RESTORATION POEMS: 1972-2007 (Country Valley Press, 2008);
Stone Girl E-pic (Leafe Press [paper], 2011);
G OO DNIGHT (Moria Press [paper], 2009);
Points/Counterpoints (Fact-Simile Press [paper], 2010);
DE:SIRE IS [book 1 of trilogy] (The Knives Forks and Spoons Press [paper], 2010);
She Intrudes [book 2 of trilogy] (Modest Proposal Chapbook Series [paper], 2011);
ARS POETC HER [book 3 of trilogy] [forthcoming from The Knives Forks and Spoons Press [paper], 2013).