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!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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)