Cdr. Dan McKinley, a former educator at the Coast Guard Academy who retired as an administrator and humanities instructor at Lebanon Valley College, self-published his first book of 50 haiku, titled “Red Sky at Night.”
McKinley said he has been writing the poems since he was a student at the academy and has been submitting them to be published in a haiku magazine.
“The poems were written over 50 years,” he said. “I just thought it was about time to collect them for my family and friends.”
The book is dedicated to Sandi, McKinley’s wife of 50-plus years. McKinley said he got 70 physical copies of the book, which he handed out to people close to him, and there are more copies available through Red Moon Press.
But he said he isn’t interested in making sales — he wanted to compile some of his work and share it with loved ones.
And they had a range of reactions.
“Some of them never even heard of it. Some of them didn’t know that I was a haiku writer. Some of them were surprised. Some of them are very thankful,” McKinley said. “I have a few that say, ‘I keep it on my bedstand [and] read it every once in a while for solace.’”
He said he started his journey into haiku — Japanese poems that follow a 5-7-5 syllable pattern and relate to the four seasons — when he was serving on an icebreaker and discovered haiku poems in a movie. From there, he did research and started writing his own.
“I submitted haiku for a year until I finally got one accepted, and I said, ‘Okay, well, I think I’ll make this a hobby,’” McKinley said.
McKinley’s haiku shared in “Red Sky at Night” typically revolve around topics like loss and change, and he said forming the poems helps him deal with the emotions.
One haiku from the book based on the winter season reads, “Back of his hand / No longer familiar / Cutting his cake.”
“I start out with a cliche — ‘it’s as familiar as the back of your hand,’” McKinley said. “But then as I age, I’m looking at the back of my hand and I’m thinking, ‘Did I ever really know the back of my hand?’”
Even though haiku poems are short, he said sometimes it takes a while for him to put them together. It involves finding the inspiration for a haiku and then finding the right words that express the emotions and fit the syllable requirement.
McKinley has also used his poetry skills to help others.
He said he has used his knowledge of poetry therapy to help students grieving the loss of a friend and a coworker going through a divorce.
“He was willing to write out his feelings in a poetic form, and then I would kind of work it to get more of an emotional release from him,” McKinley said.
“Red Sky at Night” isn’t the end of McKinley’s haiku journey. He said he is still writing and submitting entries for magazines and hopes to put another book together at some point.
“Hopefully, it won’t take 50 years as the first one took,” he said.
Editor’s note: This article was updated after publication to clarify that McKinley retired without an academic title from the Coast Guard Academy.
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