home news publications bio reviews fiction on-line opinions

(For more of Sean Williams' haiku, see Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales.)

(and his LiveJournal, here)

The following haiku was one of three winners of the inaugural Sydney Writers' Festival haiku competition in 2000. Displayed on giant banners across the city of Sydney (see photo below), it was also printed on a pair of Y-fronts, making it the most bizarre publication SLW has enjoyed to date. The competition rules were simple but fiendish: every haiku had to contain the word "eternity", thereby robbing four syllables from the haijin's usual seventeen.

eternity is

the fading smell of cologne

in an empty room

This haiku was one of many submitted to the competition. The others are printed here for the first time:

eternity is

a drop of water, trickling

down a window pane

eternity is

the time it takes for a child

to say: "i love you"

eternity is

the final stroke of midnight

on all hallow's eve

eternity is

precisely how long it takes

to catch someone's eye

eternity is

the sight of autumn, falling

like tears, brown and gold

eternity is

a note explaining nothing,

a sad heart at night

eternity is

in the tiny, the fragile,

in life's smallest things

eternity is

waiting for a bus to come

on a rainy day

eternity is

summer, autumn, winter, spring

(repeat until done)

eternity is

tripping on the final step

with nowhere to fall

eternity is,

against all expectations,

nothing but itself