Meteor Shower

meteor shower . . .

a gentle wave

wets our sandals

This is my most frequently published haiku. It won first prize in the 2000 Henderson Haiku Contest sponsored by the Haiku Society of America, and has been published in various journals, anthologies, and websites dozens of times. For many years, too, it was included as a prominent example on the Wikipedia page for “Haiku in English.” I’ve written about this poem elsewhere (see “Meteor Shower,” with photos, and “Haiku Broadside”), but here I focus on the poem’s history, as recorded on the index cards I’ve used to track the poem’s submissions and publications. The details may be of little interest to those who simply wish to enjoy the poem (that’s always the priority), but if nothing else this history demonstrates the value of keeping detailed records—and the need to do so if you’re ever asked to provide publication credits when a poem is anthologized. Indeed, when I’ve been asked to provide the details of when and where a poem might have been previously published, it’s been easy for me to look up such details in my haiku index card boxes. And that’s what I’m showing here—all the index cards for my most frequently published poem. Consider this to be a peek under the hood, a view behind the stage of publishing a haiku.

I first wrote “meteor shower” on 11 September 1998, at Asilomar State Beach (photos below) in Pacific Grove, California, next to the Asilomar Conference Center, where I was attending that year’s Yuki Teikei Haiku Society annual retreat. The poem was quoted in the Fall 1998 issue of the HPNC Newsletter (#12), which might have rendered it ineligible for submission to most journals or for contests. However, the newsletter had a policy that any poems quoted were not to be considered “published” if they were shared as part of event or news reports, as this poem was. So I did not consider it published or curated, and thank goodness for that, because the poem might not have had such a bright future otherwise.

Before the Henderson contest, however, I didn’t have much luck getting the poem published, as you can see in the photo of the the first index card. I initially submitted it on 30 March 1999 to that year’s annual haiku contest sponsored by the Haiku Poets of Northern California. They returned the poem on 25 May 1999 (these were the days where you snail-mailed submissions, enclosing a self-addressed stamped envelope for a return notification). I then tried the Shiminami Kaido Haiku Contest in Japan, sending the poem on 7 July 1999, but it was returned 16 September 1999—or rather, that’s the date I considered it returned, because I had no reply, and that was probably the date (or near then) that other poems were announced as winners. This contest, incidentally, was held in conjunction with the Shimanami Kaido 99 International Haiku Convention held on 12 September 1999 in Matsuyama, Japan, where the “Matsuyama Declaration” on International haiku was announced (see my “Matsuyama Declaration: An Annotated Analysis”). I then submitted the poem to Modern Haiku, on 11 November 1999, getting it back on 2 December 1999. Over the years I’ve been grateful to Modern Haiku for returning the poem, or it wouldn’t have won the Henderson contest. Before that, though, I submitted this haiku to Still magazine’s haiku contest in England, sending out the poem on 10 February 2000 and having it returned on 18 March 2000. I then submitted the poem to the Henderson Haiku Contest on 31 July 2000, and was notified on 31 October 2000 that it had won first place (and $150). I was grateful to Jerry Kilbride and Cyril Childs who were the judges. You can read their commentary and see photos at “Meteor Shower.”

At some point I changed the punctuation in the poem’s first line from an em dash to an ellipsis, as I think the ellipsis gives the poem a slower unfolding pace. Although the version that won the Henderson contest employed an em dash, I now prefer the ellipsis instead, and this haiku has mostly appeared with an ellipsis when republished. Below is a timeline for the poem, highlighting most but not all dates relevant to the poem’s history. Note that my index cards don’t include every use or translation of the poem, especially online, which has somewhat left my control. I do appreciate it, though, when the poem might be quoted or discussed, as I’ve recently discovered, for example, on the PoemAnalysis website, and elsewhere.

Above all, I hope readers can enjoy the poem’s moment. As Jerry Kilbride and Cyril Childs wrote, the poem’s gentle wave “reminds us that all things in the Universe are connected and pulse with miraculous life; that our own lives are crucially dependent on the fragile atmosphere and hydrosphere of our planet,” adding that this poem “is the achievement of a writer whose eyes, heart and mind are open to Nature, a poet who knows the craft of haiku.”

—25 May 2025 (previously unpublished)