#39

welcome to another summer issue of hedgerow! simply sit back & enjoy. thank you all for being here.

https://www.facebook.com/hedgerowpoems

with love & kindness.

 

 

 

I remember the air
from the summer we met:
heavy and thick
with a new sweetness
I desired to touch

Kat Lehmann lives in Connecticut, USA, by the river where she writes. She is a scientist and a poet who enjoys the unity of these perspectives of nature. Her work has been published in both poetry and science journals. Her first book of poetry, Moon Full of Moons, was published in February 2015 by Peaceful Daily. Visit her on twitter (@SongsOfKat).

 

 

 

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Steve Wilkinson, Co.Durham, England. Editor of the Bamboo Hut and currently exploring the avenue of TanshiArt. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1515183017/

 

 

 

skipping stones
reminiscing—four skips, five
we find a memory
that she forgets
I get to tell her about us

.

moon glow
just enough to see
the page
does it reflect yesterday’s
or tomorrow’s sun?

Patrick Doerksen is a student of social work and lives with his wife in Victoria, Canada, where flowers bloom as early as January and it is very difficult to be unhappy. He writes poetry as a way of experiencing life more fully.

 

 

 

the moon
paints willow leaves
on my walls
with her sumi’e wind brush
dancing through my dreams

Carole Johnston spends summer days driving around Bluegrass backroads with a notebook, a camera and her dog. Her chapbook, Journeys: Getting Lost, can be ordered from Finishing Line Press.

 

 

 

summer dawn
crawling over the hill
dandelions

.

cricket song
I turn to speak in
Dad’s good ear

Dave Read is a Canadian poet whose work has appeared in many journals, including hedgerow. You can find his micropoetry on Twitter, @AsSlimAsImBeing.

 

 

 

Sparrow perches on open window
a foil to the pain of bone
lying on bone
Sunshine ripening tomatoes

Jo Waterworth has lived in Glastonbury UK for thirty years. Sometimes she takes her poetry seriously enough to send it out and get published. Other times she’s busy with art or singing. She is a part-time mature student at Bath Spa University and blogs at https://jowaterworthwriter.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

butterfly wings
sweep the sky —
no dust remains

Kevin Trammel recently published his book Gathered Rain, a season-traversing dance of poetry, prose and artwork, written over years of reflective delight in the fields of Indiana, the forests of the Pacific Northwest, the oak graced foothills of the Sierra. Now living in Georgetown, California, he enjoys riveting conversation with his cats, the passing foxes, the wind in the tulip tree and the pines, and does his best to take down their words as creative prose meditations or as haiku.

 

 

 

blue lagoon
parrot fish graze
on pink coral

.

blue spirals into violet
mother of pearl

Simon Hanson lives in rural South Australia where he loves to walk the back roads at an ambling pace down to the nearby limestone coast. He no longer collects shells, leaving them instead on the beach where they belong, but does sometimes bring home an idea for a haiku or two.

 

 

 

sewing

the pineapple bedspread
the marshmallow dessert
the blue jay’s squawk
the evergreens sway
the cat who sat by the stove
the women tying stitches in knots
the rug embroidered with orange red threads
the women who girdle their thoughts

Irene Koronas is the poetry editor for Wilderness House Literary Review. She has three full length books, Portraits Drawn from Many, Ibbetson Street Press; Pentakomo Cyprus, Cervena Barva Press; and Turtle Grass; Muddy River Books. She has numerous chapbooks and poetry in many anthologies. She reviews poetry books for the small press community.

 

 

 

Advertisement

hedgerow #34

thrilled to bring you #34 of hedgerow, an issue that will hopefully make you smile! some exciting news to share with you this coming week, stay tuned. thanks everyone, for being here…

 

with love & kindness!

 

 

 

 

 

 

so much happiness but no tail to wag

.

practicing how not to be too honest

.

hibiscus tea in a sunflower mug mixing it all up

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bad handwriting I must want to keep secrets from myself

Zee Zahava lives in Ithaca, New York (USA) and is the editor of the online haiku journal “brass bell.”

 

 

 

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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.

 

 

 

riding the
Midnight Butterfly Express
wearing my
glassy glitter wings I
wonder why everyone
reaches out to touch me

drummer in the
Midnight Butterfly Blues Band
heart beats neon
while a blind poet
misses the light show

got a letter
from Midnight Butterfly
tattered and worn
hand painted haiku moon
stained by indigo blood

jetting in my
Midnight Butterfly car
radio maniac
blaring cosmic questions
I meet myself on the road

lost again
at Midnight Butterfly
Coffee Shop
scribbling runes in my notebook
with skyblueluminous ink

Circus of the Soul
starring Midnight Butterfly
run away with me
to the light show of your mind
join the poetry bizarre

in line at Starbucks
Midnight Butterfly taps
me on the shoulder
a poem pops in my mind
steams off in a coffee cloud

some say
Midnight Butterfly is just
a metaphor
muse in an old photograph
your smokey absinth dreams

wish I could paint
chiaroscuro lightning like
Midnight Butterfly
Joan Jet & Black Hearts
silver studs leather jackets

that carousel
my childhood in hyper-drive
a gold ring quest
chasing Midnight Butterfly
on glossy white horses
into the blue distant sea

Carole Johnston lives and writes in Lexington, Kentucky, USA, although she is from “nowhere zen.”

 

 

 

moored in a cove
the stars above
the stars

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.

 

 

 

birding . . .
he shushes
the cicadas

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

 

 

 

outdoor diner
joined by a party
of sparrows

.

brush marks
in wet paint
the cat’s tail

Simon Hanson lives in a small country town in South Australia where he spends quite a lot of time walking the back roads between paddocks. Some of the cows have become acquainted with his Blue Heeler dog who seems to forget on occasions that it is not her job to round them up no matter how much fun it might be.

 

 

 

falling barn—
      unhurried
the drooping roof

.

starlings
in the chicken house
thieving feed

Ed Higgins’ tanka, haiku, and haibun have been published in various print and online journals. He and his wife live on a small farm in Yamhill, OR. where they raise a menagerie of animals including a pair of Bourbon Red turkeys (King Strut and Nefra-Turkey) and an alpaca named Machu-Picchu.

 

 

 

AT THE BUS STOP

guy next to me
is making earthquake noises,
cracking open the earth,
toppling buildings
with a jerk of his tongue
across the roof of his gums

I hold on thankfully
to poles that do not totter,
stand on a sidewalk
that doesn’t crack,
below a sky that does not fall

so how come he knows
what kind of day I’ve had?

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in New Plains Review, Big Muddy and Sanskrit with work upcoming in South Carolina Review, Gargoyle, Owen Wister Review and Louisiana Literature.

 

 

 

transformers
covered in morning glories
electric blues

.

rice cakes
that even geese won’t eat
your lies

Scott Wiggerman is the author of three books of poetry, Leaf and Beak: Sonnets, Presence, and Vegetables and Other Relationships; and the editor of several volumes, includingWingbeats: Exercises & Practice in Poetry, Lifting the Sky: Southwestern Haiku & Haiga, and the new Wingbeats II. Recent poems have appeared in Decades Review, Frogpond, Pinyon Review,Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, and the anthologies This Assignment Is So Gay and Forgetting Home: Poems about Alzheimer’s. He is chief editor for Dos Gatos Press, now of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

 

 

 

WHEN LOVE IS NOT ENOUGH

would it help
to get naked
but for a welder’s
helmet

Anna Cates resides in Wilmington, Ohio with her two cats, Freddie and Christine, writes, and teaches English online for several universities.

 

 

 

the road that goes to Philadelphia
a modern haiku

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. Follow on Twitter @MikeAndrelczyk.

 

 

 

hedgerow #16

thrilled to bring you #16 of hedgerow featuring 13 different poets & artists. thanks everyone, contributors as well as readers, for turning up!

if you have a moment, please pass by our sister site wildflower poetry press (find links below) launching its first title this week. here you will also find a sneak peek of forthcoming titles, including the print version of hedgerow.

https://wildflowerpoetrypress.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/wildflowerpoetrypress

thanks again! with love & kindness…

 
 

Jennifer Thompson

pink sky
the perfection I failed
to reach…
I am cracked pavement
beside your painted lines

Jennifer Thompson, West Virginia, USA

 
 

Sandi Pray

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Sandi Pray is a wild child who roams between mountain and marsh in North Carolina and Florida, http://ravencliffs.blogspot.com.

 
 

Bob Brooks

UNOBJECTIONABLE

Oh to be
unobjectionable–

the very word
broad, flat,

rough-surfaced,
useful as a doormat.

.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY PANTS

32 – 32

34 – 32

36 – 32

36 – 30

Bob Brooks’s poems have been published in many journals including The Beloit Poetry Journal, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Prairie Schooner, and Rattle; in four chapbooks, most recently Companion Pieces (Finishing Line Press, 2012); and in the full-length collection Unguarded Crossing (Antrim House Books, 2011), short-listed for the 2012 Maine Literary Award in Poetry, and named first runner-up for the 2012 Eric Hoffer Poetry Book Award. He lives with his wife and dog in Concord, Massachusetts, and Stockton Springs, Maine.

 
 

Mike Keville

charity walk
the sound of gravel
in my hips

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why! she asks…
how do I explain
to expectant eyes
granddad doesn’t
know everything…

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morning mist
a peacock’s aha!
goes unanswered

Mike Keville from London AKA Mikeymike.

 
 

Anne Curran

at the art gallery
with an artist friend …
I am seduced
by her explanation
of light and dark

Anne Curran is a Japanese verse forms poet who lives with
her cat Ollie, and writes when time allows in Hamilton, New Zealand.

 
 

Michael Mark

Reflection
– for Sara

You are the perfect moon.
I am the still lake

to show how beautiful
you are in all your phases.

Come and go as you please.
Whenever you are thirsty,

drink
until you are full.

Michael Mark lives in California and is a hospice volunteer and long distance walker whose poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. @michaelgrow

 
 

Wendy Bourke

Bereft and adrift
– time stopped –
in a sea of grief,
for we could not imagine
how the lot of us
would make a go of it
without that calm,
beautiful man
captaining our little ship:

the passage of time
marked, one by one,
at the moment of resolve
to carry on
as best we could . . .
as he would have wished.

Wendy Bourke lives in Vancouver, BC where – after a life loving words and scribbling poetry lines on pizza boxes and used envelopes – she finally got down to writing and publishing her poetry “in earnest” four years ago.

 
 

Julie Bloss Kelsey

first dance
all awkward elbows
and tight knees
he watches her feet
at every turn

.

checking the pockets
before I launder
her school clothes
I add another rock
to my collection

(written in response to a wonderful poem by Robyn Cairns @robbiepoet)

Julie Bloss Kelsey (@MamaJoules on Twitter) lives in suburban Maryland with her husband, three kids, one dog, one rat, and eight fish.

 
 

Carole Johnston

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Carole Johnston lives in Lexington, Kentucky USA where she drives around Bluegrass backroads with a notebook and camera in the front seat, capturing the haiku moment. Journeys: Getting Lost, Carole’s first chapbook of haiku and tanka, is now available for presale from Finishing Line Press. https://finishinglinepress.com/product_info.php?products_id=2211

 
 

Lolly Williams

Clear for Takeoff

leaving home …
butterflies take flight
beyond the garden
the air turbulence tilts
all my baggage to one side

crash landing
in a sleepy hollow …
through the years
seeds of slumber have attached
themselves to all my dreams

wandering lost
through every scene
with broken wings
I remind myself
that I will fly again

buttons, papers
odd bits of everything
parts of the sum
I clip new wings
from a magazine

enchanted evening
the scent of white jasmine
in the warm wind
I sense a whole other life
still ahead of me

Lolly Williams, from California, is a little magpie who collects scraps of words, phrases, images and other shiny things for her short form poetry and mixed media art. Her work can be found in various print and online publications.

 
 

Mary Kendall

curls of steam
a pot of ginger tea
fragrant this night

Mary Kendall, a poet from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is the author of a chapbook, Erasing the Doubt, and co-author of A Giving Garden. Her poems have appeared both online and in print, and her blog, A Poet in Time can be found at http://www.apoetintime.com.

 
 

Olivier Schopfer

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Olivier Schopfer lives in Geneva, Switzerland, the city with the huge lake water fountain. He likes capturing the moment in haiku and photography. His work has appeared in The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2014 and in numerous online and print journals.

 
 

Stacey Murphy

At day’s end
All over the world,
We lather the cloths.
Time to remove the makeup
The armor
The magician’s blindfold
The leather
The ancient battle-mask
The gunk that might as well stay.
Scrub through the fake smile
The nervous twitch
The uncertain glance
The bruise
The pox
The shame
The un-yield
The unintended insult
The fully intended dig
The well-meant concern
The sloppy unwelcome kiss
The piercing glare.
Keep scrubbing. Try to get out
The control
The no way out
The making do
The not good enough
The slap
The no choice
The scars
The silence.
And now, sister of the world,
Sleep.
Tomorrow you start again.

Stacey Murphy is happiest when her thoughts are clear, short and haiku shaped, but living in Ithaca, NY helps too.

 
 

hedgerow #7

welcome to #7 of hedgerow, bringing you 19 different poets & artists! please keep sending in your work and thanks also for spreading the word, every effort is appreciated. grateful to contributors and readers alike. with love & kindness…

Marianne Paul

beneath Toronto
there is an ancient river
the current as slow as the flow
of glass
there is something beautiful
about the hidden
the forgotten
in the form of rivers
beneath our surfaces

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Marianne Paul is a Canadian novelist and poet. You can learn more about her work by visiting http://www.mariannepaul.com or following her on twitter @mariannpaul.

Jennifer Arbini

Child of the Earth

I was a child of the Earth:
Dirty hands, dirty feet.
I loved the sound
of cicadas in summer;
Rattle snake grass
Rattling against the hem of my skirt
And billowing dust.

I was a child of the Earth:
Curious eyes, curious heart,
I relished the adventure of exploring the land;
Cool streams
Covered by an evergreen canopy
And dappled light.

I was a child of the Earth.
Devoted mind, devoted spirit,
I played in this backyard everyday;
Long ago memories
Lingering in my daily thoughts
And writing my story.

Jennifer Arbini is a Californian woman whose greatest passion is to travel and experience the world.

Jo Waterworth

It’s OK

I can remember lying on the earth
gazing at the blazing-with-wonder night sky
knowing I would not fall off.

Shining right back.

Let me hold your hand.

Jo Waterworth lives in Glastonbury and has had a pamphlet of short poetry published by Poetry Space of Bristol.

Neelam Dadhwal

Blue

The sky dripped away or
held back, with no remorse,
I ever watched
the crescent blue,
striking sometimes
my heart
of green valley, of meadows,
of limbs of forms,
and I decided
to look at you,
and hold it for ever,
the blue of you.

The ever blue.

Neelam Dadhwal, Chandigarh, India

Paula Dawn Lietz

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Paula Dawn Lietz ( Pd Lietz ) is an accomplished multi-genre artist, photographer and poet. http://www.pdlietzphotography.com

Clifton Redmond

Square Peg

He was different.
He could see sounds,
feel colours.

When people tried
to get close
he threw tantrums,

pressed his hands
against his ears,
his cocoon.

The doctors diagnosed
him with fancy words,
dosed him with drugs;

branded him unstable,
and filed him away
in a locked cabinet.

Clifton Redmond is an Irish poet; a member of the Carlow Writers Co-operative, his poems have been published in various literary magazines and journals.

Anne Curran

just loving
I hold him close
afraid
the storm in me
might push him away

Anne Curran lives in Hamilton, New Zealand close to her
parents where she writes, dreams and works to help elderly
stay in their homes.

Melanie Barbato

Roman Room

Mnemonists
Tie thoughts to tangible things
With the chair, the table
The framed painting on the bedroom wall
They recall
Random words
Or the order
Of shuffled cards
I do this, too, but for reassurance
I touch in my room
The wood and the glass
Substitutes for what
Has been wrested from my hands
When I ask who am I?
They say
You give us shelter –
We remember the names

Melanie Barbato is currently completing her doctoral studies in Indology and Religious Studies at LMU Munich/ Germany.

Carole Johnston

among tombstones
an old man in a chair
red cap and jacket
playing music for the dead
leaves blowing in the wind

Carole Johnston lives in Lexington, Kentucky USA where she drives around Bluegrass backroads with a notebook and camera in the front seat, capturing the haiku moment. Journeys:Getting Lost, Carole’s first chapbook of haiku and tanka, is now available for presale from Finishing Line Press. The books will be delivered in January. https://finishinglinepress.com/product_info.php?products_id=2211

Maureen Sudlow

It’s just an old cardboard box from my mother’s attic. My sister wants to throw it out with ‘all the other rubbish’, but I am afraid of losing more of my mother than I can bear. When I open it, there is a smell of dust and old peppermints, and I think I feel the pressure of my mother’s warm hand on mine.

memories are
the treasures that I hold
these photographs

Maureen Sudlow is a member of The New Zealand Society of Authors (Northland), and the New Zealand Poetry Society, and writes mainly poetry and text for children’s picture books.

Billy Antonio

summer vacation
my daughter’s crayons
scattered on the floor

late afternoon
an old woman carries
the sun
on a winnowing basket
on her way home

Billy Antonio is a public school teacher in the Philippines where he writes fiction and poetry to remind himself of moments he thinks are worth remembering.

Roary Williams

crystal
on a string
in the window
first thing the sun
has said all day

Roary Williams, Albuquerque New Mexico, USA, is a simple poet who loves nature and the seasons (@CoyoteSings)

Stevie Strang

november sunrise
silently inches its way
across the yard
unfolding the morning
one ray at a time

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Stevie Strang is a writer, photographer/Artist and late night poet in Southern California. More of her work can be viewed at http://justperfectstudio.blogspot.com/

S.Eta Grubešić

Grain of sand.
In my shoe I wear the
whole universe.

S.Eta Grubešić, Croatia, ex-journalist, writer short story , poems and photographer. Her works have been published in various books and literary e-portals.

Vibeke Laier

touch of
moonlight in the
evening prayer

gentle waves
a line of stars
painted in the sand

Vibeke Laier lives in Randers, Denmark, she has been writing and studying poetry since 2012, but her interest in the art of haiku stretches back to when she was a schoolgirl.

Tim Gardiner

onshore wind sea horses dance

Tim Gardiner, Manningtree, England is a professional ecologist who has written scientific papers, natural history books and poetry which has been published in literary journals such as Blithe Spirit and Frogpond.

Julie Warther

above the spillway —
root steps
in the riverbank

Julie Warther writes haiku from her home in Dover, Ohio where she lives with her husband and three children.

Laura Williams

all that remains … frost on the blackberry brambles

Laura Williams has been writing haiku and tanka since 2012. She lives in California, USA. http://www.foralovelything.blogspot.com

Caroline Skanne

whole

Caroline Skanne, rochester, uk, obsessed with anything wild & free, she is the founder of hedgerow: a journal of small poems.