thrilled to bring you #16 of hedgerow featuring 13 different poets & artists. thanks everyone, contributors as well as readers, for turning up!

if you have a moment, please pass by our sister site wildflower poetry press (find links below) launching its first title this week. here you will also find a sneak peek of forthcoming titles, including the print version of hedgerow.

https://wildflowerpoetrypress.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/wildflowerpoetrypress

thanks again! with love & kindness…

 
 

Jennifer Thompson

pink sky
the perfection I failed
to reach…
I am cracked pavement
beside your painted lines

Jennifer Thompson, West Virginia, USA

 
 

Sandi Pray

Sandi Pray is a wild child who roams between mountain and marsh in North Carolina and Florida, http://ravencliffs.blogspot.com.

 
 

Bob Brooks

UNOBJECTIONABLE

Oh to be
unobjectionable–

the very word
broad, flat,

rough-surfaced,
useful as a doormat.

.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY PANTS

32 – 32

34 – 32

36 – 32

36 – 30

Bob Brooks’s poems have been published in many journals including The Beloit Poetry Journal, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Prairie Schooner, and Rattle; in four chapbooks, most recently Companion Pieces (Finishing Line Press, 2012); and in the full-length collection Unguarded Crossing (Antrim House Books, 2011), short-listed for the 2012 Maine Literary Award in Poetry, and named first runner-up for the 2012 Eric Hoffer Poetry Book Award. He lives with his wife and dog in Concord, Massachusetts, and Stockton Springs, Maine.

 
 

Mike Keville

charity walk
the sound of gravel
in my hips

.

why! she asks…
how do I explain
to expectant eyes
granddad doesn’t
know everything…

.

morning mist
a peacock’s aha!
goes unanswered

Mike Keville from London AKA Mikeymike.

 
 

Anne Curran

at the art gallery
with an artist friend …
I am seduced
by her explanation
of light and dark

Anne Curran is a Japanese verse forms poet who lives with
her cat Ollie, and writes when time allows in Hamilton, New Zealand.

 
 

Michael Mark

Reflection
– for Sara

You are the perfect moon.
I am the still lake

to show how beautiful
you are in all your phases.

Come and go as you please.
Whenever you are thirsty,

drink
until you are full.

Michael Mark lives in California and is a hospice volunteer and long distance walker whose poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. @michaelgrow

 
 

Wendy Bourke

Bereft and adrift
– time stopped –
in a sea of grief,
for we could not imagine
how the lot of us
would make a go of it
without that calm,
beautiful man
captaining our little ship:

the passage of time
marked, one by one,
at the moment of resolve
to carry on
as best we could . . .
as he would have wished.

Wendy Bourke lives in Vancouver, BC where – after a life loving words and scribbling poetry lines on pizza boxes and used envelopes – she finally got down to writing and publishing her poetry “in earnest” four years ago.

 
 

Julie Bloss Kelsey

first dance
all awkward elbows
and tight knees
he watches her feet
at every turn

.

checking the pockets
before I launder
her school clothes
I add another rock
to my collection

(written in response to a wonderful poem by Robyn Cairns @robbiepoet)

Julie Bloss Kelsey (@MamaJoules on Twitter) lives in suburban Maryland with her husband, three kids, one dog, one rat, and eight fish.

 
 

Carole Johnston

Carole Johnston lives in Lexington, Kentucky USA where she drives around Bluegrass backroads with a notebook and camera in the front seat, capturing the haiku moment. Journeys: Getting Lost, Carole’s first chapbook of haiku and tanka, is now available for presale from Finishing Line Press. https://finishinglinepress.com/product_info.php?products_id=2211

 
 

Lolly Williams

Clear for Takeoff

leaving home …
butterflies take flight
beyond the garden
the air turbulence tilts
all my baggage to one side

crash landing
in a sleepy hollow …
through the years
seeds of slumber have attached
themselves to all my dreams

wandering lost
through every scene
with broken wings
I remind myself
that I will fly again

buttons, papers
odd bits of everything
parts of the sum
I clip new wings
from a magazine

enchanted evening
the scent of white jasmine
in the warm wind
I sense a whole other life
still ahead of me

Lolly Williams, from California, is a little magpie who collects scraps of words, phrases, images and other shiny things for her short form poetry and mixed media art. Her work can be found in various print and online publications.

 
 

Mary Kendall

curls of steam
a pot of ginger tea
fragrant this night

Mary Kendall, a poet from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is the author of a chapbook, Erasing the Doubt, and co-author of A Giving Garden. Her poems have appeared both online and in print, and her blog, A Poet in Time can be found at http://www.apoetintime.com.

 
 

Olivier Schopfer

Olivier Schopfer lives in Geneva, Switzerland, the city with the huge lake water fountain. He likes capturing the moment in haiku and photography. His work has appeared in The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2014 and in numerous online and print journals.

 
 

Stacey Murphy

At day’s end
All over the world,
We lather the cloths.
Time to remove the makeup
The armor
The magician’s blindfold
The leather
The ancient battle-mask
The gunk that might as well stay.
Scrub through the fake smile
The nervous twitch
The uncertain glance
The bruise
The pox
The shame
The un-yield
The unintended insult
The fully intended dig
The well-meant concern
The sloppy unwelcome kiss
The piercing glare.
Keep scrubbing. Try to get out
The control
The no way out
The making do
The not good enough
The slap
The no choice
The scars
The silence.
And now, sister of the world,
Sleep.
Tomorrow you start again.

Stacey Murphy is happiest when her thoughts are clear, short and haiku shaped, but living in Ithaca, NY helps too.