From Best of Geppo

Geppo is the “work-study journal” of the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, based in San Jose, California. Although the title means “monthly” in Japanese, based on how frequently it was published when it started in 1978, over the years it evolved to be published every two months, and then quarterly. Each issue invites members to submit haiku that appear anonymously. In the tradition of a Japanese kukai, a kind of haiku meeting, members then vote on their favourites. The top vote-getters are republished in the following issue, with the names of each poet, along with scores accumulated by all poems. If a poem receives even just one vote, it is said to be “born.” In 2025, Johnnie Johnson Hefernik edited Best of Geppo, a book presenting the highest vote-getters from each issue, including the following three poems of mine. See also the “Geppo Commentaries” section of the Commentary page, which presents appreciations written about my poems selected over the years.