welcome to the latest issue of hedgerow, featuring The White Spaces Series by august’s resident artist Debbie Strange, along with the work of five different poets. grateful to readers & contributors alike!

 

with love & kindness.

 

 

 

blooming
on both sides of the fence:
forget-me-nots

.

summer reading …
my old dog on his back
yawns at the clouds

.

the sand
slips through my clasped fingers …
autumn dusk

Chen-ou Liu is currently the editor and translator of NeverEnding Story, http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.ca/, and the author of five books, including Following the Moon to the Maple Land (First Prize, 2011 Haiku Pix Chapbook Contest) and A Life in Transition and Translation (Honorable Mention, 2014 Turtle Light Press Biennial Haiku Chapbook Competition)

 

 

 

Honourable Mention, Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, Tokutomi Haiku Contest, 2014

 

 

 

visible stars . . .
all that I know
I don’t know

.

so much passion beneath a nickel-sized moon

Julie Warther (@JulieWarther) lives in Dover, Ohio and serves as Midwest Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America. (www.hsa-haiku.org). Her haiku chapbook “What Was Here” is available through Folded Word Press.  
http://foldedword.bigcartel.com/product/what-was-here

 

 

 

poem previously published in Red Lights, Volume 11, Number 2, June 2015

 

 

 

holocaust of the heart

he was
crippled emotionally
not physically—
the slow descent
into despair

after he jilted me
my outer layers
of protection
peeling off like veneers
in heavy rain

separated—
i lie in a cold
death bed
thick with parched
tears

nothing would
sway his mind
not my love
not my thirst
not my ardent prayers

the bone silence
of an empty tea cup—
deep into
the night
my suicidal breath

holocaust
of the heart
unrepairable
pulverized
into red-rust dust

dark notes
of a howling pound
my sheltered mask
i sink deeper & deeper
into an ebony funk

Pamela A. Babusci is an internationally award-winning haiku/tanka & haiga artist. She lives in Rochester, NY, USA.

first published in Adanna Literary Journal Issue 5 2015
http://adannajournal.blogspot.co.uk/

 

 

 

poem previously published in Ribbons, Volume 10, Number 2, Spring/Summer 2014

 

 

 

my shadow
further cracks …
late monsoon

(referring to ‘drought’)

Archana Kapoor Nagpal is an internationally published author of four books and three anthologies. Presently, she resides in Bangalore, India. You can visit her Amazon Author Profile to know more about her books and literary contributions.

 

 

 

poem published in Gems, An Anthology of Haiku, Senryu and Sedoka, 2014

 

 

 

winter sunset
the old Bing Crosby songs
Dad used to sing

Anna Cates resides in Wilmington, Ohio with her two cats, Freddie and Christine, writes.  She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, and several other advanced degrees related to English studies, and teaches English online for several universities.  She is a regular contributor to short form poetry publications, and her first full length collection of haiku and other poems, “The Meaning of Life,” from Cyberwit.net, is now available on Amazon.

 

 

 

sketch only, Winner of The Heron’s Nest 2014 Illustration Contest (front cover)
haiga published in Cattails, September 2014

 

 

 

The White Spaces Series by Debbie Strange —

 

I love the sense of mystery surrounding white spaces in art. These iPad sketches are not meant to be realistic portrayals, but rather, a means for the viewer to fill in the blanks…

 

read more about the artist behind the art here —https://hedgerowpoems.wordpress.com/poet-artist-in-conversation/