welcome everyone & thanks for being here! to enjoy this week’s issue, simply click on the pdf link below…
with love & kindness,
caroline skanne
founding editor
hedgerow-90-edited-by-caroline-skanne
#90
5
Tag Archives: artwork
#82
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/
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
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!
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.
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.
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
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.
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).
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.
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
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
.
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
.
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.
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.
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.
#79
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
#78
welcome to #78 of hedgerow. this week features artwork by Paula Dawn Lietz. as always, grateful to contributors & readers alike…enjoy!
with love & kindness,
caroline skanne
founding editor
unread books
are piling up
beside the bed
dunnocks carry twigs
nesting under the hedge
.
making supper
my heart sitting
on that hill
writing poems
above Quaker bones
.
I am trying
to learn to live with pain
the way I live with slugs
not running over them
but taking another path
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.
dawn chorus
call
and response
and response
and response
Patti Niehoff (Cincinnati, Ohio USA) lives in southwestern Ohio with her husband and cats.
blackbird
choosing
which apple
to peck
Christina Martin has been writing poetry since as far back as she can remember. She lives in West Wales in the UK where she takes much of her inspiration from the sea and her natural surroundings. She also paints.
fairy princess
a missing tooth smile
as bright as her tiara
.
tabernacle lamp
the warm red glow
of sunset
Simon Hanson lives in Queensland Australia, grateful for another day . . .
wind chimes-
the rocking chair
starts without me
Steve Smolak lives in Herrin, IL, Usa. He reads, writes, and studies haiku daily.
chiffon strap
the immodesty
of moonlight
.
gas flare
the midnight sea
awash in light
Dave Read is a Canadian poet. His work can be found on his blog, davereadpoetry.blogspot.ca.
paper boats
sailing through a puddle
in the refugee camp
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)
the art is this issue was brought to you by Paula Dawn Lietz —
Paula Dawn Lietz is as well a multi-genre artist and photographer specializing in digital media. Lietz has garnered an impressive range of credits working with various publishers and authors, and revels in the creative energy generated within the artistic and literary community…
more at —
http://www.pdlietzphotography.com
#72
welcome to this week’s packed issue of hedgerow! as always, grateful to readers & contributors alike. enjoy…
the art in this issue was brought to you by Debbie Strange. you can follow her blog here–
with love & kindness,
caroline skanne
founding editor
haiku moment
I step outside
myself
.
catching up-
all the updates
we skip over
.
reunion
measuring how far
we moved apart
.
alone at home
I try to reason
with a leaky faucet
Debbi Antebi (@debbisland) exhales oxygen while writing poems. She lives in Istanbul, Turkey, with her husband and books.
his mood swings
the pain in my chest
deepens
.
a monarch flutters
the pages in my book
become one
.
sun shower
today I will be polite
to you
Jade Pisani resides in Victoria, Australia. She has been writing haiku for the past five years and feels they are so addictive that sometimes she needs to pull over from driving to capture the moment. If she does not have pen and paper on her, she has been known to write a phrase on her rear vision mirror with lipstick.
fools gold —
the forever
you promised
before you turned
and walked away
.
slow blues —
the everything
I’d give
for just one night
with you
.
all the lives
I could have lived —
magnolia breeze
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.
dangerous shorebreak how else to fall in love
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.
crystal night
brittle stars
in the rock pool
.
pebble beach
the night gleaming
with many moons
.
waiting in the rain
droplets of water
on her pearls
Simon Hanson now lives in sunny Queensland not too far from the shores of the Pacific ocean. He now composes haiku in a lush sub-tropical garden in the company of rosellas, rainbow lorikeets, king parrots, kookaburras and some very insistent butcher birds that arrive punctually for breakfast every morning.
spring cardinal —
carrying the wind
in his crest
Julie Warther (@JulieWarther) serves as Midwest Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America. (http://www.hsa-haiku.org)
waves breaking
on Otto’s Reef
no relief
from the excessive
heat of my passions
.
graffiti scrawled on
the pylons and undersides
of bridges…
the words
of the prophets
.
the town shrouded in misty rain
ghostly coconut palms
barely visible
even after all this time
I’m still haunted by her death
Ivan Randall lives in St Marys (N.S.W.), Australia not far from the Blue Mountains. He has been writing haiku and tanka since 2013. He also writes sonnets and free verse.
what is naked
and lives in the twilight
like a specter…
silence fills me,
an autumn butterfly
Sergio A. Ortiz is the founding editor of Undertow Tanka Review. His collections of Tanka, For the Men to Come (2014), and From Life to Life (2014) were released by Amazon and Createspace as well as his full print collection of poems: At the Tail End of Dusk (2014). His collection of poems in Spanish, A La Orilla Lenta De Un Ocaso, was also released by Amazon and Createspace (2014).
some days
seem to require
such raw energy
just to dwell
in the nearness of life
Nancy Cross Dunham lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband, Michael. She writes poetry to try to figure out what she’s learning about herself, the world and the other people in it.
the art in this issue was brought to you by Debbie Strange. the poems alone previously appeared in A Hundred Gourds. find out more about Debbie Strange here… https://hedgerowpoems.wordpress.com/poet-artist-in-conversation/
#63
welcome to a new issue of hedgerow! thrilled to announce that ‘Manic Dawn’ by Carole Johnston is now available from amazon (please find link below). you can visit wildflower poetry press (link also below) for further details about our titles. thank you for your support! the art in this week’s issue comes from the editor’s archive… enjoy & thanks everyone for making this a beautiful place.
with love & kindness.
caroline skanne
founding editor
https://wildflowerpoetrypress.wordpress.com
love’s sweet song
plays over and over
as I slip
into the ocean
of her eyes
.
I’ve laughed
& loved
& died
a thousand times…
snowdrop breeze
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.
a tight line
of ten birds undulating
the twilight—
i have no name
for what I feel for you
Shrikaanth Krishnamurthy is a psychiatrist from Bengaluru India, living in England. A trained vocalist and a composer in Indian Classical Music, he writes in several languages. His haiku, tanka, Haibun and haiga have been published in reputed journals and anthologies and won prizes. He is the proofreader for journals Cattails and Skylark.
listen…
flowers speaking
to hearts
Ed Bremson lives in Raleigh, NC, USA, where he writes poetry, watches movies, and celebrates Happy Hour daily.
last farewell
the train whistle cuts through
our silence
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)
scan results
his arms cradle
my fears
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!
#56
welcome to this week’s issue of hedgerow. we have five more issues to go before taking a short winter break. new book reviews to be added next week as well as a new resident artist for december. in the meantime, grateful to contributors & readers alike, you make this a beautiful space…
if you haven’t already popped by our sister site wildflower poetry press, please find the links below. some exciting news to be announced here shortly as well as call for submissions!
https://wildflowerpoetrypress.wordpress.com/
you can also follow any updates / call for submmissions & other announcements on our fb page —
https://www.facebook.com/wildflowerpoetrypress
with love & kindness.
no one can see
my tears in the rain
but if you listen
.
Mike Keville from London AKA Mikeymike.
inside her heart
the names
for all the oceans
Mike Andrelczyk is currently living in Strasburg, Pa. Also lived in Los Angeles, Ca. and Lewes, De. He likes writing haiku about the ocean, potatoes, moons, plants – mostly little things except the ocean which is huge, and the moon which looks little but isn’t.
Debbie Strange (Canada) is a published tanka and haiku poet and an avid photographer. She enjoys creating haiga and tanshi (small poem) art. You are invited to see more of her work on Twitter @Debbie_Strange.
ancient memory . . .
beyond bright stars
faint stars
.
blue haze
out of the mist
Nile lilies
Simon Hanson lives in rural South Australia where he often walks the back roads between paddocks. Some of the cows have become acquainted with Pippa, his Blue Heeler dog, who seems to forget that it is not her job to round them up no matter how much fun it might be.
Debbie Strange (Canada) is a published tanka and haiku poet and an avid photographer. She enjoys creating haiga and tanshi (small poem) art. You are invited to see more of her work on Twitter @Debbie_Strange.
pussy willow . . .
was it just yesterday
i felt your touch?
Veronika Zora Novak is simply a daydreamer.
Christine L. Villa is the founder and editor of Frameless Sky ~ http://framelesssly.weebly.com. With childlike wonder and fascination for ordinary things, she is an animated story teller, a dream weaver, and a sensitive poet.
invisible to herself she disappears on the outside
Margaret Jones resides in Wisconsin, USA. She began writing in the summer of 2015, and is learning how to walk in the woods with binoculars in one hand and haiku notebook in the other.
Pat Geyer lives in East Brunswick, NJ, USA. Her home is surrounded by the parks and lakes where she finds her inspiration in Nature. She is an amateur photographer and poet.
cobbled together
from those who still stood
our Tribe of Women
was picnics and pinochle
and afternoon pilsner
one by one
they sank into storms
now I
am what remains…
the matriarch, by default
Kat Lehmann is a scientist and a poet who explores the grandiose captured within the minute. She lives in Connecticut, USA, by the river where she writes. Her first book of free verse poetry isMoon Full of Moons (2015, Peaceful Daily): http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0988492644/. Visit her on twitter (@SongsOfKat).
#52
welcome to the latest issue of hedgerow! as always grateful to contributors & readers alike, thank you all for being here.
the art in this issue can be found in the beautiful book ‘Peru Journey 2015’ which features photographs by Tom Clausen that have been digitally enhanced by Alexis Rotella.
the book can be viewed here — http://nowvel.com/book/5593e53458cccbcf0e0d6d04
with love & kindness.
https://www.facebook.com/hedgerowpoems
https://www.facebook.com/wildflowerpoetrypress
just because
cold beach
at 3:00 a.m.
Anna Cates lives in Ohio with her two beautiful kitties and teaches in Southern New Hampshire University’s online M.F.A. in creative writing program. A regular contributor to literary publications, her first full length collection of haiku and other poems, “The Meaning of Life,” is available at Cyberwit.net and Amazon: http://www.cyberwit.net/authors/anna-cates
reading Gertrude Stein
under her sun hat
a smile is a smile is a smile
Perry L. Powell lives in College Park, Georgia, USA. He works as a systems analyst and writes poetry out of love and loss in the evening.
sing your songs
of love
to me
but not
with words
.
a single breath
could last forever…
lost
in the ocean
of you
.
the memory
of your touch
runs through me
like a river —
midnight blues
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.
the hydrangea
finally produces
a poem
Julie Warther (@JulieWarther) serves as Midwest Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America. (http://www.hsa-haiku.org) Her most recent venture involves the installation of 30 haiku stones as part of the Holmes County Open Air Art Museum in Millersburg, Ohio. (http://www.innathoneyrun.com/successful-grand-opening-ceremony/)
pulling saffron threads
a pinch of spice for the stew…
one more passing year
Pat Geyer lives in East Brunswick, NJ, USA. Her home is surrounded by the parks and lakes where she finds her inspiration in Nature. She is an amateur photographer and poet.
owl’s call
through the haze of years
a child walking in the woods
.
fading asters
tap tap of footsteps
on the dry path
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.
please click on the page link below to read more about october’s resident artist Alexis Rotella —
https://hedgerowpoems.wordpress.com/poet-artist-in-conversation/
hedgerow: a journal of small poems 