welcome to #33 of hedgerow, bringing you eleven different poets & artists. as always, a big thank you to readers & contributors alike!

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with love & kindness.

an empty page
in the old typewriter —
new moon

.

gray shadows —
the soft landing
of a puma

.

midnight walk —
cherry blossoms shuffle
the silence

Theresa A. Cancro (Wilmington, Delaware, USA) enjoys observing nature, writing poems and short fiction, especially the challenge of haiku and related short-form poetry. Her work has been published internationally in print and online journals, including Presence, Chrysanthemum, Shamrock, Hailstones, A Hundred Gourds, A Handful of Stones, Cattails, and Kumquat Poetry, among others.

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.

When the Dam Won’t Break

Sometimes the dam won’t break
Sometimes the breath holding
  becomes so automatic, lungs
  won’t expand and the oxygen
  in your pores becomes painful

Sometimes the clock won’t tick
Sometimes the unrest stops
  your soul from unfolding
  the heart beats without pumping
  your blood, leaving fingers cold

Sometimes one listen isn’t enough
Sometimes the song mustn’t end
  the music has more love to give
  your ears opening to the sound
  makes you weep silently

Sarah Thursday calls Long Beach, California, her home, where she advocates for local poets and poetry events. She runs a Long Beach-focused poetry website called CadenceCollective.net, co-hosts a monthly reading with one of her poetry heroes, G. Murray Thomas, and just started Sadie Girl Press as a way to help publish local and emerging poets. Her first full-length poetry collection, All the Tiny Anchors, is available now. Find and follow her on SarahThursday.com, Facebook, or Twitter.

The story
settles down
for a ride
in the story.

Kim Peter Kovac lives in Alexandria, VA, USA, where he produces plays for young audiences and writes poetry, prose poetry, creative non-fiction, haiku, haibun, and microfiction.

Try to catch the wind.
Count the ripples in the sea.
Become a child again.

Joan McNerney’s poetry has been included in numerous literary magazines and anthologies such as Camel Saloon, Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Blueline, Missing of the Birds, the Bright Hills Press, Kind of A Hurricane Press and Poppy Road Review. She has been nominated three times for Best of the Net. Poet and Geek recognized her work as their best poem of 2013. Four of her books have been published by fine small literary presses.

another morning another crack in the ceiling

.

daydreaming about a garden I can daydream in

.

solitary day alone with the house plants

.

from my afternoon bed eavesdropping on 3 crows

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

UNTITLED

In those dreams

You’re out beyond
The shoreline and you’ve
Been there for some time.
You’ve forgotten,
Standing on an outcrop,
That the tide’s been coming in
All the while.

You’ve been
Absorbed in watching some fish
Moving, just below the surface,
Turning in fluid movements with
Their tails swaying back and forth in
Water gravity with buoyance as
Undertow, undertow as buoyance.

Suddenly
You realize the sea has surrounded,
If not engulfed, you with nothing
Left in sight but the shore off in the
Distance and a few rough rocks
Jutting out of the tidal waters
Like a ragged line of stepping stones:
Running down one side
With an occasional anchor sticking
Out of the water, close to shore, with
Their unique rusted surfaces intact.

That’s right, an archipelago of random rocks
And then one anchor after another.
What does it mean?

Who is it?

James Mc Elroy, a native of Belfast, currently teaches at the University of California, Davis. His articles and reviews have appeared in The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times. Recent poetry publications include pieces in Vox Poetica, The Boston Poetry Magazine, and Literature Today.

purple sky
movements beneath moles holes
what the stray cat knows

.

after rains—
blue jay jive in the bird bath
cumulus clouds

.

August eve
long green sunlight
creeps along the grass

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

Meditation

This is time to pause—
and witness rainbows learn to fly.

Kevin Heaton is originally from Kansas and Oklahoma, and now lives and writes in South Carolina. His work has appeared in a number of publications including: Guernica, Rattle, Slice Magazine, Beloit Poetry Journal, The Adroit Journal, and Verse Daily. He is a Best of the Net, Best New Poets, and three-time Pushcart Prize nominee.

rain-rinsed moonlight —
one by one jasmines unfold
in my garden

Archana Kapoor Nagpal is an internationally published author of four books and three anthologies. Presently, she resides in Bangalore, India. You can visit her Amazon Author Profile to know more about her books and literary contributions.

first star . . .
a swift’s gentle leaf-drop
into the chimney

.

out of the blue
one crow after another
hits the updraft

.

blushing sky . . .
a hummingbird waits
for the morning glory

.

nothing to say until the oriole sings

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