Robert Witmer has lived in Japan for 45 years. A semi-retired college professor, he writes poems in the Japanese forms of haiku and tanka, as well as free verse and occasionally metered verse. The several years he spent traveling through Central and South Asia have had a profound influence on his work, opening his eyes to the marvelous diversity of cultures and the wonders of the natural world. He believes in the power of the written word to engage the imagination and to bring people together, and, as the poet Wallace Stevens once said, "to stimulate the sense of living and being alive." 

Among the professional achievements deriving from my long career as Professor of English at Sophia University, I was appointed Emeritus Professor, in part for founding the Sophia Writing Center and serving as Chairperson in the Faculty of Liberal Arts. My poetry has won a number of awards, including Honorable Mentions in the Robert Spiess Memorial Haiku Awards (3 times, with four poems)) and the Museum of Haiku Literature Award. My poems have been included in many anthologies, among which are two art books published by Befuddled Press, The Awakened One: Buddha-Themed Haiku from Around the World, and New Resonance 13.

Robert Witmer has recently published a book of short poems and prose poetry pieces titled Serendipity. The book is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, as well as from the publisher, Cyberwit.

Cyberwit.net
Includes information about my two books of poetry and two poetry anthologies to which I have contributed.

JST researchmap
Includes information about my academic career. I haven't updated this in quite a while.