welcome to #79 of hedgerow. this week features artwork by Debbie Strange. as always grateful to contributors & readers alike, thank you all for being here.

 

with love & kindness,

 

caroline skanne
founding editor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

noonday heat
boys building dams
in the stream

.

climbing up
to my old treehouse
the milky way

Stephen Toft is a poet and homelessness worker who lives in Lancaster, UK with his girlfriend and their children. In 2008 red moon press published his collection, the kissing bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

my mind’s extremes . . .
hailstones ping
through the pine

.

open window
the promise
of purple clover

.

crossroads —
a spider web spans
both signs

Julie Warther (@JulieWarther) serves as Midwest Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America. (http://www.hsa-haiku.org)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

unfaithful
all the lies she
tells herself

.

her double vision-
what is &
what could’ve been

Debbi Antebi (@debbisland) exhales oxygen while writing poems. She lives in Istanbul, Turkey, with her husband and books.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

positive

statistically
there are poets
probably many
writing this poem
in other universes

chances are
one of them
will get it right

.

beyond Mars, a comet sings
how did the nightjar
learn its song?

Simon Williams has six published collections. He latest pamphlet, Spotting Capybaras in the Work of Mac Chagall http://www.indigodreams.co.uk/simon-williams/4592093628, launched in April and his next full collection, Inti, will be out later this year. Simon was elected The Bard of Exeter in 2013 and founded the large-format magazine, The Broadsheet. He makes a living as a journalist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

windswept trees
the empty spaces
inside my heart

.

spring reduced
to hothouse flowers
… knee surgery

.

low-lying stratus —
suppressing
the urge to cry

Julie Bloss Kelsey lives in Germantown, Maryland with her husband and three children. She enjoys writing short form poetry, crafting, and drinking decaf iced lattes. Visit her on Twitter (@MamaJoules).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

there’s a
tap-tap-tap of rain
on the water bowl
and the slow night train
goes rumbling by

.

I keep
everything simple
around me
because in my heart
the river runs full

After decades of living in the States and Canada, Joy McCall now lives in her birthplace of Norwich, England, growing older but not much wiser.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the art in this issue was brought to you by Debbie Strange, you can read more about her here — https://hedgerowpoems.wordpress.com/poet-artist-in-conversation/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

publication credits —

the bickering – Eucalypt 19, 2015

this amulet – Bright Stars 7 Tanka Anthology, 2014

dark-eyed junco – Frameless Sky 3, 2015

sun catcher – Kokako 23, 2015

gulls nesting – Undertow Tanka Review 7, Honourable Mention, First Annual Tanka Competition, 2015