Owen was born on the Oregon coast in 1930. Ten days later he was placed in an orphanage where he remained until he ran away at age thirteen. His early poetry was written during the "beat generation" and reflected the anger of the times as well as his misguided youth.

In 1998 his granddaughter, Aimee, brought him a homework assignment that dealt with haiku. Her questions reawakened his poetic interests and he began writing again in the simplicity of the format. Since then many of his haiku have been published in Japan and the United States.

One definition of haiku states, the poem can be said in one breath. However, there are far more definitions of haiku than there are breaths that would be required for a reading of this collection. Owen's haiku rarely conform to the so-called standard 5-7-5 syllabication of the western world. Most all haiku contain a reference to nature, Owen's nature is the reality of today. A simple beauty can be found in the ghetto as well as the mountain stream.