​I have been writing poetry since I was a young adult, and my life’s work has revolved around reading, writing and guiding others in their intellectual, spiritual and creative growth. I taught the great literatures of the world to students at San Jose State University, San Jose City College and Evergreen Valley College from 1969 to 2004, a span of thirty-five years. For an additional nine years, I served in the Diocese of San Jose as an adult religious educator.
 
Now I live in a small beach house in rural Hawaii with Wayne Higashi whom I married when we were both eighteen years old. During our decades together, we traveled extensively in every continent except Antarctica. After coming to Hawaii, I co-authored the website: myteaplanner.com with my niece, Kathleen Pedulla. Kathleen and I also write monthly blogs available on myteaplanner.com, “Cakes and Tea” by Kathleen, and my blog, “Tea and Travels.” While our website is about the food, customs and traditions of the Tea Ceremony as it is practiced throughout the world, it also contains many of my haiku and other poems as well as photographs and paintings by Kathleen and Wayne.
 
Years ago, in the early life of the internet, Wayne secured the domain name, mybestpoems.com with the thought that I might some day want to share my poetry with a wider audience than my family members, students and friends. That day has come, and I am grateful to offer the poems on this website to anyone who might want to read them. I have organized them into loose categories to allow readers to follow their own interests. The final section, “Finding the Poet,” is a textbook on reading, analyzing and writing poetry. I wrote this text as an educational tool for instructors of advanced adolescents and adults who want to understand, appreciate and write poetry themselves.
 
Rose Anna Higashi