Dan Barker, initiator of American Tanka and founder of the Home Gardening Project began writing poetry on a troop ship departing DaNang at the end of '65. The following years took him to readings in coffee houses, colleges, radio stations, teach-ins and antiwar rallies. He was published in many West Coast literary magazines. His Vietnam novel, Warrior of the Heart, was published by Burning Cities Press in '91. In the 80's, finding readings and print inadequate to the presentation of the radiance of mystic thought, he began creating American Tanka, a form loosely based on Tibetan Thangha. Using silks, satins, metallic threads (Upavita - the thread that connects all souls), semiprecious stones and pearls to frame the thought-essence of the great mystics, the artist extends joy to the world. He is currently publishing, making and showing American Tanka, and is the director of the Home Gardening Project Foundation. After building over 1400 free raised-bed vegetable gardens for low-income households in Portland's disenfranchised neighborhoods from the '80s through the 90s he established the HGP as a contributing foundation.

Thousands upon thousands of free vegetable gardens have been built on the HGP model. Notice of his work has appeared in National Geographic, Utne Reader, Smithsonian Magazine, The Congressional Record, Der Plunkt, The Sun, Organic Gardening Magazine, Rain, Catholic Digest, Reader's Digest, Biography, Who's Who, Australia Broadcasting Company, NPR, KATU, KPTV, ABC TV's Home Show and Good Morning America, Chicken Soup for the Gardeners Soul, among a host of others, and has been given Renew America's 8th annual National Environmental Sustainability Award, along with a grant from the Rodale Institute (4/'98). He was selected as one of Utne Reader's 100 American Visionaries in '95, and is included in The World's Greatest Ideas!.