He is a major figure in English-language haiku, known for his wry, poignant observations [1] [2] [3] In 1947, Swede arrived with his mother and stepfather from post-WW II Europe to live with his maternal grandparents on a fruit farm in Oyama, British Columbia and, when his stepfather died in 1950, Swede moved with his mother to Vancouver where he finished junior high and high school.
at Dalhousie University with a published thesis [5] From 1966 to 1967, Swede was a psychology instructor at Vancouver City College, after which he worked as a school psychologist at the Scarborough Board of Education in Toronto until 1968.
This was achieved by enrolling Vaughan Road Academy students[7] in a university level introductory psychology course that Swede taught.
See also his papers at the Archives & Special Collections, Toronto Metropolitan University [9] SWEDE BEGAN WRITING FREE VERSE in the late 1960s and published in such journals as SWEDE'S INTEREST IN THE HAIKU Japanese poetry began in 1976 when he was asked to review Makoto Ueda's Modern Japanese Haiku (University of Toronto Press, 1976).
In an interview with Alok Mishra, Editor-in-Chief, Ashvamegh, Swede spoke about the poets who have influenced him—Dylan Thomas, Leonard Cohen, Ezra Pound and others.