Monthly Archives: June 2016

#83

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welcome to this week’s hedgerow, a bumper issue featuring work from 10 different poets & artists! as always, grateful to contributors & readers alike, you make this a beautiful place.

 

please note —

submissions will close by the end of this week, as hedgerow is taking a summer break after #86 (15th july). you will be notified once submissions reopen (see our facebook page below)…

 

facebook.com/hedgerowpoems/

 

with love & kindness,

caroline skanne
founding editor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sudden silence
I read between
your lies

.

shattered glass
looking for order
in the mess

Rachel Sutcliffe, from Yorkshire, UK, has suffered from a serious immune disorder for the past 15 years, throughout this time writing has been her therapy, it’s what keeps her from going insane!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_2638spring breeze kaufmann (1).JPG

Barbara Kaufmann is a retired nurse whose love affair with nature started when she was five and continues unabated. She delights in capturing the beauty of her world in poems and images. You can see more of her work at http://www.wabisabipoet.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

family vacation
Dad’s a whiz with maps
(but he can never fold them)

.

talking politics
the dentist
strikes a nerve

.

Throwback Thursday
Undelivered Mail
Returned to Sender

Ian Willey is a social scientist/English teacher living in rural Japan. He believes senryu are the key to maintaining work-life balance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maine coast:
sand too hot,
water too cold

Anna Cates is an award-winning short form poet and writer who lives in Ohio with her two cats and teaches English and education online.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Imagined beings,
fantastical worlds,
existential sorcery.

Imagined beings.jpeg

Dave Stankowicz is a poet and photographer who lives on an island off the coast of Portland, Maine. He engages daily in a tug-of-war with time, and explores the realm of serendipity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

toy soldiers
one her son
looks like

.

inside the warmth
of a teardrop, he returns
to the sea

Elmedin Kadric was born in Novi Pazar, Serbia, but writes out of Helsingborg, Sweden. A student of both longer and shorter forms of poetry, and an avid observer of everything else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

finches dart
from one tree to the next
in a rising wind …
storm clouds
warning me of trouble

Anne Curran is a Hamiltonian. She has been writing Japanese
verse forms for about nine years now. She writes in awe and admiration of all those Japanese verse poets and editors who have encouraged her on this journey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

city buzz
a longing
for silence

.

flash storm
the unexplained grief
in my heart

Christina Sng writes haiku to immerse herself in nature while living in the city. She finds joy in gardening, birdsong, and sakura tea. Find her at christinasng.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lake st. clair.jpg

the blush
of young love…
cherry blossoms

Elizabeth Alford is a magna cum laude graduate of California State University, East Bay (B.A. English, 2014). She lives in Hayward, California, USA, is an amateur photographer, and spends most of her time writing haiku, senryu, and haibun. Follow her poetry adventures @ http://www.facebook.com/ElizabethAlfordPoetry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

will you marry me?
shifting shadows
veil her face

.

one-legged heron
silhouetted by the sun …
I used to be

.

running his hand
through morning sunlight…
the inmate

.

Chinatown corner
an erhuist bows
to birdsong

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)

 

#82

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welcome to #82 of hedgerow. thrilled to announce the launch of the latest wildflower poetry press title — ‘between here and home a lifetime’ by Mike Keville. for further information, the link below will take you to wildflower poetry press.

this week features artwork by resident artist Debbie Strange. as always, grateful to contributors & readers alike.

 

with love & kindness,

 

caroline skanne
founding editor

 

https://wildflowerpoetrypress.wordpress.com/current-titles/

 

SONY DSC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ocean stars
the sound
of no shore

Paul Chambers is a haiku author from Newport, South Wales. His work can be viewed at www.paulchambershaiku.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Hills.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

passing clouds
the silence of shadows
between us

.

another year gone
your mug
on the shelf

Rachel Sutcliffe, from Yorkshire, UK, has suffered from a serious immune disorder for the past 15 years, throughout this time writing has been her therapy, it’s what keeps her from going insane!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Midnight Sun.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

200 miles . . .
this plum blossom
on my windshield

Julie Warther (@JulieWarther) lives in Dover, Ohio and serves as Midwest Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America. (www.hsa-haiku.org)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

chrysanthemums —
flower girl tells me
the price has jumped

Emmanuel Jessie Kalusian is a young haijin from Nigeria. He began writing haiku in 2012. He is the co-founder of Africa Haiku Network.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

gardenias…
my hands filling
with yours

Elizabeth Alford is a magna cum laude graduate of California State University, East Bay (B.A. English, 2014). She lives in Hayward, California and co-hosts the reading group Poetry Express, based in Berkeley. http://www.facebook.com/ElizabethAlfordPoetry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lightning streaks
our paradise
cracked open

Alegria Imperial, writes all forms of Japanese short poetry, as well as, mainstream poetry. She lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she immigrated from Manila, Philippines, ten years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the sweater.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

declining
the wedding invitation–
chipped conch shell

 

in the midst of darkness a resurrection fern

 

buttercups
the gentle grip of
childhood hands

 

between friends the swoop of a swallow

 

cold rain
a robin
robes its wings

 

eye of dawn please don’t airbrush

 

bad mood
a thunderstorm nears
the rapeseed field

Meik Blöttenberger was born in Baltimore to German immigrant parents. He is currently living in Hanover, Pennsylvania and in a decade will be retiring to the high desert of Arizona. His other passions are photography and traveling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You Made Me.jpg

 

the art in this issue was brought to you by Debbie Strange —

https://hedgerowpoems.wordpress.com/poet-artist-in-conversation/

http://www.debbiemstrange.blogspot.ca/

 

 

 

 

 

 

publication credits —

the poems by Debbie Strange have previously appeared  here —

in the hills & midnight sun – cattails, May 2016

the sweater – Undertow Tanka Review, Issue 7, 2015

you made me – The Bamboo Hut, Volume 2, Issue 1, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#81

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welcome to #81 of hedgerow! this week features collages by J.I. Kleinberg. as always, grateful to contributors & readers alike. enjoy…

 

with love & kindness,

 

caroline skanne
founding editor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the candle and i
neither of us
in a hurry
 

the silence of the chair
before she arrives
to claim it

Zee Zahava lives in Ithaca, New York

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

under the cedar tree
he reads Rumi to his love
while overhead
a lone goose flies
crying for his mate
 

tall grasses
moving slow
in the wind
he says a benediction
under the ancient oak
 

she climbs
thirsty and tired
and finds again
the spring
rising from the rock

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

J.I. Kleinberg - NOW is NOW.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

deep breath
my poem
my own

Margaret Jones resides in Wisconsin, USA.  She enjoys walking in the woods, binoculars in one hand and haiku notebook in the other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

face to face …
the inquisitive hover
of a bumblebee

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).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

J.I. Kleinberg - struck by sap.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we’d hide and seek
he’d stop and call “Gramma?”
… memories of little boy smiles
on the lips
of summer days

Nancy Cross Dunham lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband, Michael.  Retired from the University of Wisconsin, she now writes poetry to try to figure out what she’s learned about herself, the world and the other people in it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sartor

It’s hard to be sophisticated when depressed,
cufflinks, like top buttons, are a major challenge,
shoe-laces resist residual logic, only on
cruises are partings as wavy as mine,
eye contact is the least of worries when there’s
the heavy shab of my shoulders to take in,
the tumbleweed beard, trousers that might be pajamas,
yesterday’s shirt today, little bursts of aesthetic mayhem
heralding divestment from the self.

A former British diplomat, Daniel Roy Connelly has worked around the globe. He has acted in and directed theatre in America, the UK, Italy and China, where his 2009 production of David Henry Hwang’s M Butterfly was forced to close by the Chinese secret police. He is a professor of creative writing, English and theatre at John Cabot University and The American University of Rome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BLUE NOTE

the blue note
lingers
shaping the darkness
of another night
without you

the cold wind
sings
she’s gone
she’s gone
she’s gone *

piled high
in this valley
of sorrow
broken promises
empty dreams

* ‘she’s gone’ is a blues song by Hound Dog Taylor

Paul Smith is a poet from Worcester in the UK. Alongside poetry Paul enjoys Japanese style ink painting, building cigar box guitars and playing old time blues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

J.I. Kleinberg - within the eagle.jpg

the collages in this issue was brought to you by J.I. Kleinberg —

Bellingham, Washington, freelance writer, artist and poet J.I. Kleinberg works and plays with words. Her found-word collages, from a growing series of over 1,100, explore the accidental syntax of unintentional phrases. She doesn’t own a television and spends a lot of time tearing paper.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#80

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welcome to #80 of hedgerow. as always, grateful to contributors & readers alike! thanks for making this a beautiful place. enjoy…

 

with love & kindness,

 

caroline skanne
founding editor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sunlight sifts through summer maples a trail of emerald beetles

.

stones sizzle
in the sun
a rattlesnake sheds its skin

Mary Jo Balistreri has been writing haiku and haibun for two years. She finds it makes her more aware of what’s right under her nose, and sometimes it is astonishing to think she might have missed it had it not been for haiku. It helps slow things down and brings her to a peaceful place. It is becoming a way of living. Her website is maryjobalistreripoet.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sudden storm1

.

summer’s end
the strawberry jar
overgrown with grass

Joyce Joslin Lorenson lives in Rhode Island, U.S.A., grew up on a dairy farm and records the daily happenings in nature around her rural home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the silence of wind
before the rain
after the rain

.

3 months since i walked this path
nothing has changed
except me

.

last night
impossible to sleep
the moon in my bedroom

Zee Zahava lives in Ithaca, New York

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

breeze Nika_McKinniss.jpg

.

corpse pose
my restless world
fades away

poems by Nika is the pen name of Jim Force. He has published two chapbooks: frogs singing (1993) and snail my friend (2015). Nika lives in Victoria, BC, Canada where he writes with The Heron’s Quill. He is a member of Haiku Arbutus as well as Haiku Canada.

photo by Jim McKinnis is a retired mathematician and software engineer. He has an eclectic interest in image making. His current and past photographic projects include the horses of the Badlands in South Dakota, the homeless of Los Angeles, cemeteries in Italy and the Mask Festival in Venice. Jim lives in Orcutt, California, USA. http://www.jimmckinnissphotography.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sparring
to become
a butterfly

Elmedin Kadric was born in Novi Pazar, Serbia, but writes out of Helsingborg, Sweden. A student of both longer and shorter forms of poetry, and an avid observer of everything else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

autumn breeze
for a moment
we forget our anger

.

weathered crow
finding light
after the war

Christina Sng writes haiku to immerse herself in nature while living in the city. She finds joy in gardening, birdsong, and sakura tea. Find her at christinasng.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

late night storm.jpeg

Pris Campbell, of West Palm Beach, FL, U.S. , writes both short forms and free verse.   A former Clinical Psychologist and avid sailer, she was sidelined by ME/CFS in 1990 and now leads a far quieter life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

painted clouds . . .
the pause before
answering “fine”

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

his shop empty
still the barber’s pole
turning, turning

Jackson D. Smith is a homemaker and writer from Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is a grateful transplant recipient who started writing to cope while waiting for a new heart to become available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rosemary's rocks_AQ.jpeg

Marietta Jane McGregor is a Canberra-based botanist and journalist who has pursued varied careers in research and science communication at Australian universities and the CSIRO. Having spent much of her life trying to explain things, Marietta now tries to let them explain themselves, through haiku. A Tasmanian friend who studied botany with Marietta, Rosemary Roth, took the original photograph on a bush walk. Rosemary also lives in Canberra. Now retired, she spends many happy hours exploring the nearby hills and engaging with the natural world.