#79

Posted on May 27, 2016 by Caroline Skanne

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.

The Bickering.jpg

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)

this amulet.jpg

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.

Dark-eyed Junco.jpg

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.

Sun Catcher.jpg

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.

Gulls nesting.jpg

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

hedgerow #17

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to #17 of hedgerow, bringing you ten different poets & artists. as always grateful to readers & contributors alike. please keep sending in your work as well as spreading the word, every effort really counts! thanks also to all of you who had a peek at our sister site wildflower poetry press. if you haven’t already, simply follow the links below —

https://wildflowerpoetrypress.wordpress.com/

https://www.facebook.com/wildflowerpoetrypress

with love & kindness…

Michael Curtis Paul

Here at the Museum of Bad Ideas

We climb the spiral staircase
With boundless enthusiasm, searching
Tirelessly for the co-relation
Of spit and sandpaper, Jackdaw and superstition.
My wife is singing ‘Mary had a little lamb.’
My wife is reciting multiplication tables.
Once she quoted Tennyson:
“There lies the port, the vessel puffs her sail.”
I reached for a bottle of port, and downed it.
We are ailing from the same ailments, but approach
Remedies from different directions.
She prepares to ingest certain curative
Substances, while I make an appointment
With the headshrinker and wait patiently
For the vessel to puff her sail.

All of this. All of that. All of the above.
A sort of summing up. A remedial mathematics of memory.

Walking a high wire strung between the Urban Dictionary and the Oxford Unabridged, Michael Curtis Paul is a tight rope aerialist with an inner ear disease.

Paula Dawn Lietz

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

Debbie Strange

The Sacrament of Snow

the glow
of candled sea ice
at sundown
snowflakes melting
on our lashes

moonswept
the snowy foothills
u n d u l a t e
a night bird calls
my echo answers

a nimbus
around the frost moon
above us
the hushed wings
of a snowy owl

so many words
for rain and snow
in foreign tongues
yet the language of lovers
remains the same

Debbie Strange is a published tanka and haiku poet and an avid photographer. She enjoys creating haiga and tanshi (small poem) art. You are invited to visit her on Twitter @Debbie_Strange.

Natalia L. Rudychev

the phoenix of my heart
leaves fireflies behind
like fairy tale crumbs
so if i’m ever lost
there would be
living sparks
to guide
your
path
to
me

Natalia L. Rudychev is a philosopher, dancer, poet. She lives in New York, New York.

Caroline Skanne

Caroline Skanne, Rochester, UK is obsessed with anything wild and free. She is the founder of hedgerow: a journal of small poems. Her book ‘a hundred poems by caroline skanne’ is available from amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/hundred-small-poems-caroline-skanne/dp/1506022944

Barbara Kaufmann

How Is It Possible

on a morning when the clouds
curl back upon themselves,
and give up only momentary corridors of bare sky,
on a morning when those maddeningly small tokens of blue
taunt and tease a rain-weary, fog-weary heart,
how is it that the sighing wind,
bending toward the naked oak tree,
can carry a burst of bird song
through the myriad layers
of a morose winter morning,
piercing the frozen edges of a february nap
prodding and poking me out of my february nest?

By what miracle does a Carolina wren,
the tiniest of wintering birds,
on the gloomiest of winter days,
sing in the only voice
the universe gave it,
an April voice,
conjuring up a stunning moment of spring,
and bestowing a blessing
on the rain besotted morning,
anointing my eyes and ears
with the chrism of its winter anthem,
just in time to save my despairing soul
from the depths of this winter silence?

Barbara Kaufmann can be found (or lost) wandering in the woods, beaches and gardens of New York, her camera and notebook in hand, hunting for poems. http://wabisabipoet.wordpress.com/

Wendy Bourke

We walked by bushes in the rose garden
– happy – munching on kalamata olives and
spitting out pits, that landed, capriciously,
on the earth – like peace-loving bullets.

I rested my head upon his shoulder
and listened to the sound of our breathing . . .
as the minutes fell away.

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.

David J Kelly

David J Kelly lives and works in Dublin, Ireland, where he finds scientific and artistic inspiration in the natural world.

Ed Bremson

the unstained snowy
mountain-top . . .
the pine woods,
the eagle soaring
amidst the clouds

Ed Bremson lives in Raleigh, NC, USA where he writes poetry, watches movies, erases novels, and makes haiku song videos. ‘the unstained snowy’ appears in Ed Bremson’s book of found poems Frankenstein, available at amazon — http://www.amazon.com/Frankenstein-Ed-Bremson/dp/1503116794/ref=sr_1_1

Veronika Zora Novak

on bent knees . . .
our hair washed by
twilit river song

Veronika Zora Novak is simply a daydreamer.

hedgerow #10

Posted on November 28, 2014 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to #10 of hedgerow, featuring 16 different poets and artists. thanks to contributors and readers alike, and also for spreading the word. every effort is appreciated! please keep sending in your submissions, with love & kindness…

Roary Williams

all those seeds
we planted at night
stars upon stars

crescent moon
in an icy sky
Buddha’s half smile

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

Veronika Zora Novak

Teika

Veronika Zora Novak is simply a daydreamer.

Scott Kovach

I walk in my suit
down snow-fallen sidewalks

If I were a boy again
I would clobber me with a snowball

Scott Kovach provides poetical and facetious commentary from the Middle West on Twitter as @scottkovach.

Jon Wynne

The science
Of why we hear sound in a shell
Does nothing
To explain the voices we hear

Dad and lad holding hands
Big proud strong safe,
Small clutching a comic.
Big grins big boots
Stomping down the windy hill
Together.
Forever.

Old Man’s Beard
Silvering the hedgerows
Snare the sunbeams
In your gentle decay

Jon Wynne lives in Hampshire and has been writing on & off for many years. People and places are the real poetry. ‘I just try to describe what I see and feel.’

Rachel Sutcliffe

all this time
in grandma’s press-
his first red rose

Rachel Sutcliffe, from Yorkshire, UK, has suffered from a serious immune disorder for the past 14 years, throughout this time writing has been her therapy, it’s keeps her from going insane!

Mary Harwell Sayler

Rehearsals

We practice aging – the bruise
that takes too long to heal,
the once-cracked ankle radiating
pain to indicate rain coming,
a memory lost among many,
many.

Mary Harwell Sayler, an almost native of Florida, writes books in all genres for Christian and educational publishers. In 2012, Hiraeth Press published her first full-length book of poetry, Living in the Nature Poem, with an e-book version released in 2014. Also, in 2014, Kelsay Books published her Bible-based poems, Outside Eden, and book of nature poems for children, Beach Songs & Wood Chimes.

Joann Grisetti

Joann Grisetti lived up in Sasebo Japan and eighteen other places. She lives inFlorida with her husband and two sons. Her poetry, photos and stories have appeared in a number of print and online journals. She is still waiting to grow up. Her latest book ‘Round Trip’ is available at Amazon.

John Byrne

Ireland
where moonbeams
and lover’s kisses
are often stored
In the hedgerows

John [Jack] Byrne lives in Co. Wicklo Ireland, and has been writing poems and taking pictures for quite a number of years having had some published success along the way with the right words and images.

Barbara Kaufmann

The River

the river Silence
beckons,
i dive in
listening
to ancient psalms
sing their poetry
tapping deeper
touching the pain
swimming through
to the still, silent pool,
i reach for a whisper
a single metaphor,
murmured underwater
an echo…. maybe joy
gasping,
and coming up
for air
then seeing
the sun rise
hearing the sky shout,

i breathe,
find a voice,
and sing.

Barbara Kaufmann can be found (or lost) wandering the woods, beaches and gardens of New York, camera and notebook in hand, hunting for poems. http://wabisabipoet.wordpress.com/

Kat Lehmann

holding hands:
the moonlit woman
and the girl
with a sun in her heart —
I show myself the world

Kat Lehmann lives in the United States by the river where she writes, under a clear view of the Moon. Her first book of poetry – Moon Full of Moons – will be published in January 2015. She writes on twitter as @SongsOfKat.

Jameson Bayles

a trembling dove-
fresh seeds rest
in my open palms

Jameson Bayles, a Kansas City, Missouri resident, has been published in various literary magazines and journals whose most recent work can be viewed in the poetry anthology entitled “The Artistic Muses”, published by True Colors Press.”

Jennifer Thompson

snow flurries
never knowing
what to hold back
and what
to unleash

Jennifer Thompson, West Virginia, USA

Bauke Kamstra

The river
holds no print

yet remembers
the touch
of your foot

as does the sea

one day
a raindrop
will remember
you.

Every voice
dedicated
to truth
& beauty

transforms the world.

Bauke Kamstra has mostly been a visual artist. He now paints with a different medium: words. Residing in Nova Scotia, he can be found writing poetry among tree, listening to the silence, & finding reasons to laugh. His work has been published in Poetry Nook, Vine Leaves Literary Journal, and Shot Glass Journal. His book We All Reach the Earth by Falling http://www.amazon.com/We-All-Reach-EarthFalling/dp/0992509750/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412602040&sr=1-1&keywords=we+all+reach+the+earth+by+falling was released on October 6th, 2014. You will find him on twitter as: @wyrde

Dominic Moriarty

Voyages

Dominic Moriarty is a Fine Arts photographer based in Ireland … a love and awareness of nature is a central theme in his work. A broader selection of his art is available to view and purchase as giclée prints @ http://www.dominicmoriartyphotography.com

previously published —

* the poem ‘a trembling dove’ by Jameson Bayles was previously published in “The Cataman Years”, Jameson Bayles, Mistop Publications.

hedgerow #4

Posted on October 17, 2014 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to #4 of hedgerow, featuring work from eleven different poets & artists. this issue is dedicated to the memory of poet Ronald Fischman who sadly passed away only days after his poem ‘magical realism’ was published in the first issue of hedgerow. as always, your comments, likes & shares are welcomed, as are your submissions to forthcoming issues. many thanks to contributors and readers alike. with love & kindness…

Helen Buckingham

heaven
passes
in the shape of a swan

white butterflies
scatter light
over dimming rooftops

Helen Buckingham has been writing ku for the past couple of decades in Bristol, and has recently moved to Wells, the smallest cathedral city in England, deep in the heart of Somerset.

Dominic Moriarty

Dominic Moriarty is a Fine Arts photographer based in Ireland … a love and awareness of nature is a central theme in his work. A broader selection of his art is available to view and purchase as giclée prints @ http://www.dominicmoriartyphotography.com

Tony Haynes

“Feather”

F eather lives on the street
I t fell off the wing of a bird
G ets dusty but still it can float
H ard habit
T o break – have you heard…
H ow feather
O nce flocked with high rollers
M ade merry with
E lbows you rub
L ike a fortunate traffic controller
E nrolled in a mile high club
S urely you’ve seen it, this feather
S oftly adrift in the wind
N eeding to pull it together
E xcept it just can’t once again
S o it floats on with only one purpose
S urvival and yes it survives…
…But in the process of simply surviving
It floats on and touches our lives

Tony Haynes is a Lyricist, Songwriter, Poet, Author & One Who Waxes Philosophically.

Steve Wilkinson

Taking my pen
I scribble out the pain
in heavy strokes
When will this metamorphosis
finally take place?

Feelings
flowing in ink
from the well
of my heart.
The sentence ends
but my love continues.

Homeless and hungry
read the beggars sign.
autumn drizzle
collects
in his plastic cup.

Steve Wilkinson, Co.Durham, England. Editor of the Bamboo Hut and currently exploring the avenue of TanshiArt.

Cornelius Bent

The Lesson

on that day in September
i learned a lesson
as i sat 449 miles away
from the ground we now call Zero

this lesson was taught to me
by the blacks and the whites
the muslims and the the jews
the republicans and the democrats
the atheists and the believers
the immigrants and the natives
the disabled and the able bodied

they helped each other
down endless stairwells
a commune of the assaulted
the walls conspiring
to asphyxiate
each one

they consoled each other
in shattered corporate vestibules
jet-fuel-fire pouring down
like hate from the sky

they held each other
in ash covered streets
skins now one color
equalized by impact
each searing eye
reflecting the same calamity

they ran toward each other
brigades and companies
sirens wailing like the souls
who pushed themselves
into the grip of gravity

the ones who could still move
moved
past the imaginary borders of flags
beyond the superficial doctrines of gods
behind the flawed perceptions of races
despite unproductive political allegiances

wholly
in the actions
of those people
on that day

lies the hope
for the evolution
of our species

there must be no ‘them’
in this family
of human animals

there must only
ever be
an us

Cornelius Bent, from South Bronx New York

Carole Johnston

world falls apart
poems rise up as prayers
on children’s lips
soft grey feathers of doves
aloft on winds of peace

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.

Jennifer Arbini

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

Clifton Redmond

Looking for Hope

My young son says
his dog is running the field
behind our house,
his long greyhound stride,
his reddish coat cutting evening air.
I told him his dog was gone,

told him about death, about heaven.
But he still sees his Rúa running
sloped back into twilight.
Says he understands,
but I see him look for hope,
when no one else is watching.

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.

Ronald Fischman

Pajarito

fluttering, your silky feathers
brown as the richest bark
in any tree you call home

lifted by a breath, a kiss
of sun and climate, tremulant
mist of a thousand violins

your chocolate irises flit, focus
reflect a wildflower, wild meadow
petals shimmer in your lake

they call breathing “feathered”
far too late. What of feathers
breathing summer’s first love?

Ronald Fischman wrote fiction, biography, and poetry in Philadelphia, PA. Sadly he passed away on the night of September 30, 2014. ‘Pajarito’ was the second of his poems selected for publication in hedgerow.

Caroline Skanne

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

Sergio A. Ortiz

he turned slowly
down the footpath of dust
the cantor sang
then there was silence
a stripping of life forever

Sergio A. Ortiz is the founding editor of Undertow Tanka Review. He lives in San Juan Puerto Rico. He is a four-time nominee for the 2010-2011 Sundress Best of the Web Anthology, and a two-time 2010 Pushcart nominee.