Tell us about yourself and what inspired you to start writing.
I started writing at 7 years old. I won a poetry contest at 8. I love words. I have always loved words. I love articulating and communicating. It is who I am. Every single personality or career skills test I have ever taken tells me I am a master of words, a writer, and that I should have a career in writing. So writing came naturally for me, like breathing. I’m imaginative and artistic yet also logical and analytical, so I love writing scientific, financial and literary reports and analyses, as much as policies, procedures, rules, and manuals, even as much as I love writing poetry and fiction stories. I’m in love with everything about life and nature in the physical universe and in the spiritual realm. I have an insatiable thirst for knowledge, to learn more about everything in the universe, and an unwavering drive for wisdom and understanding, how to apply knowledge for a better, more powerful, and successful life. So I write about all these areas of life and my artistic writing also reflects this.
Describe your writing process? Is there anything unique about it?
The most unique thing about my writing process is that I don’t have just one writing process. I have many different processes that kick into high gear at various times based on where my head is. Since I constantly read and think, my head drifts through cycles of aesthetic appreciation, analysis, concentrated learning of new information, theoretical wonderings, exploration, discovery, synthesis, and more. So sometimes I need to chase around my own thoughts to corner them and get them out on paper or on screen, other times the thoughts and ideas seem to want to write themselves, sometimes I write from subconscious levels of free association, other times superconscious levels of understanding and enlightenment, and other times just plain and simple up front facts and realities. Using haiku as an example, one day it takes me hours on end to figure out one haiku (3 lines less than 17 syllables), other days I write 20 and they keep coming. So the one thing I do is I just stay persistent. No matter the mood or the mode or the method, I either read and study something everyday or I write something everyday or both.
Have you published any books or do you have a desire to do so?
Yes, I have published a number of books and have plans for many many more.
Books and Publications
A Tree Frog’s Eyes: Haiku, 2020, haiku, senryu, and essays on haiku
In the Praise of His Glory, 2020, poems and Biblical notes
Archway to Beyond, 2020, haiku, haibun, poetry, and prose for an academic project
Early Childhood Learning: An Instruction Focused Framework for Ongoing Assessment, 2019, early learning educational guide
This Is the Way: Walk Ye in It, 2018, Biblical research studies and poems
Dropping Ants into Poems, 2017, literary essays and poems
Sometimes Anyway, 2016, a compilation of 39 poets
Dare to Soar, 2013, essays and poems
Between Life and Language, 2009, a compilation of 107 poets
Planned Books
Rain in the Mountain, will critically handle history, myths, and methods of writing English language haiku
The Annals of Ghalensa, a sci-fi/fantasy series of novels
Biblical Studies in Truth, a series of books with in-depth Biblical research and teaching
Man’s Search for Truth, a book about man’s search for truth through science, philosophy, and religion
(and other non-fiction works)
Do you have any favorite poets or authors?
Yes, actually, quite a few. Here are some by genre.
Poetry: Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, William Carlos Williams, Billy Collins, Ted Kooser
Haiku: Issa, Jim Kacian
Sci-Fi: Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert
Fantasy: J.R.R. Tolkien, Stephen R. Donaldson, Terry Brooks
Mainstream: J.D. Salinger
And many more.
Do you have a favorite book of poetry or poems?
Wow, that’s a tough one. Like…all books of poetry I have. But, actually, yes, I would say that they follow along the lines of my favorite poets listed above. Any collection of Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe, or Emily Dickinson poems. Carl Sandburg Chicago Poems and Cornhuskers. Billy Collins The Trouble with Poetry and Ballistics. William Carlos Williams Spring and All, and Poems. Ted Kooser One World at a Time and A Book of Things. In the Zen poetry and haiku category there’s the book Zen Poems of China and Japan: The Crane’s Bill by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto, and a book of haiku by Kobayashi Issa called Pure Land Haiku: The Art of Priest Issa, compiled and translated by David Lanoue.
What are you reading now?
In order to get multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary views and increase the chance of serendipity, I usually read 3 to 7 books at a time, a few chapters or pages of each here and there. I usually read in a wide variety of subjects, but you actually caught me at a time when I am currently very focused on haiku. So these are the books I’m currently reading (concurrently): The Poetry of Zen, translated and edited by Sam Hamill and J.P. Seaton; A Thousand Years (poetry and letters by Chiyo-ni, a female haikuist) translated and edited by Marco Fraticelli; Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years edited by Jim Kacian, Philip Rowland and Allan Burns; Imaginations (compilation of five books) by William Carlos Williams; How Does a Poem Mean? by John Ciardi.
What do you like to do when you’re not writing? Full-time job, pets, hobbies?
That’s hilarious because my full time job is writing, and I love to write on my own time as my number one hobby. So my full time job is in Clinical Research in Data Science and Medical Writing. My avocation is author, poet, haikuist, essayist, and editor. But when my fingers are NOT on the keyboard or gripping a pen or pencil, I love to cook gourmet meals, first and foremost. I am an exceptional amateur chef with a significant repertoire of ethnic foods and dishes from all over the world. I am an avid social media Internet surfer. I enjoy cultivating plants (indoors and outdoors). I love to hike in nature and even just find a nice remote nature setting to simply sit and enjoy and think and write.
Are you working on a current project?
I’ve got several irons in the fire right now, but the lead project is called Rain in the Mountain: Common Haiku Myths Debunked. It is, as it says in the title, a book about writing haiku but the approach will be to debunk and dismantle many of the common myths about haiku that often restrain new haiku poets and students with erroneous rules and limitations and to free them up to write and explore the wondrous beauty and vastness of the form. The other projects I mentioned earlier when I shared what books I have written and what my planned books are.
Poet Website and Profiles
David Eric Navarro’s Website
David Eric Navarro’s Amazon Profile
David Eric Navarro’s Author Profile Other Book Seller
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