#84

Posted on July 1, 2016 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to #84 of hedgerow. this week features haiga & photographs by Chase Gagnon. grateful to contributors & readers alike, thank you all for being here… enjoy!

please note —

submissions are now closed, as hedgerow is taking a summer break after #86 (15th July). you will be notified once submissions reopen, on our facebook page below.

http://www.facebook.com/hedgerowpoems/

http://www.facebook.com/wildflowerpoetrypress/

with love & kindness,

caroline skanne
founding editor

tuning the fiddle
to the guitar
on an iphone

rising
with the delta kite
my inner child’s laughter

Ben Moeller-Gaa is the author of two haiku chapbooks, the Pushcart nominated Wasp Shadows (Folded Word Press 2014) and Blowing on a Hot Soup Spoon (poor metaphor design 2014). Learn more about Ben at www.benmoellergaa.com.

wet leaves –
memory of “Wildwood Flower”
on Dad’s harmonica

A classical musician and public radio broadcaster, producer, and blogger, Jennifer Hambrick lives in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Visit her on Facebook, or on Twitter at @JenHambrick.

Dawn

Blind since birth,
the old man says
he’s seen thirty
thousand sunrises.

They were described to him
far better than folklore
by peals of birdsong
through his open window.

Ben Banyard lives in Portishead, UK. His debut pamphlet, Communing, was published by Indigo Dreams in February 2016. Ben edits Clear Poetry, a web journal dedicated to promoting accessible work by newcomers and old hands alike – https://clearpoetry.wordpress.com. Blog: https://benbanyard.wordpress.com

finding
that space within…
deep rock pool

seaweed
spills a hand
over rock
green threads on
dry reds

Christina Martin has always enjoyed writing and is inspired by nature and the beautiful surroundings of Pembrokeshire in West Wales where she lives with her husband.

Chase Gagnon is an amateur photographer and poet living in Detroit, Michigan who enjoys long walks on the streets taking pictures of people and urban scenery.

the scent
of burning sage
the sound
of low slow blues
– logs on the fire

I decide
to plant my grave
before I die
buttercups, cow parsley
forget-me-nots

walking around
in the long grass
at end of day
the circle
completes itself

sitting quietly
in the meadow
watching
small field mice
gathering seeds

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.

notes of
a meadow’s song
down the page
cabbage whites

Julie Warther (@JulieWarther) lives in Ohio and serves as Midwest Regional Coordinator for the Haiku Society of America. (http://www.hsa-haiku.org)

what keeps me here
in this place I don’t belong?
rolling green hills
endless wild flower sky
solitude of country roads

four a.m.
owl at the window rattles
me awake
is this a warning or
a call to adventure?

Carole Johnston lives in her imagination most of the time, but sometimes, she lives in Lexington,Kentucky. She writes short poems every day and has published two books of poetry: “Journeys-Getting Lost” and “Manic Dawn.”

night train
a whistle sounds
from the toy box

prairie sky
the wide view
of childhood

Dave Read is a Canadian poet. His work can be found on his blog, davereadpoetry.blogspot.ca.

#82

Posted on June 17, 2016 by Caroline Skanne

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/

SONY DSC

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

In the Hills.jpg

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!

Midnight Sun.jpg

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.

the sweater.jpg

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.

You Made Me.jpg

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

Posted on June 10, 2016 by Caroline Skanne

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.

J.I. Kleinberg - NOW is NOW.jpg

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).

J.I. Kleinberg - struck by sap.jpg

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.

J.I. Kleinberg - within the eagle.jpg

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.

#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

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

#78

Posted on May 20, 2016 by Caroline Skanne

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

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/picmoi

http://twitter.com/Paula_d_Lietz

#77

Posted on May 13, 2016 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to #77 of hedgerow. this week features artwork by Anna & Chris Maris. as always, grateful to contributors & readers alike, thanks for making this a beautiful place.

with love & kindness,

caroline skanne
founding editor

graveyard chill her warm tears

the passing years
how water ripples
over stones

Starting Up the Trellis

seed catalog
finding a name
for the baby

sweet pea
just starting up the trellis

first mowing
he takes down
the killer mushrooms

morning headline
birdsong overpowered
by hyacinths

dogwood blooms
tidal wave of missing you

tiny cracking sound
in the forsythia
a nest of blue eggs

Phyllis Lee and Julie Warther, both of Ohio, met through a mutual poet friend years ago and have been writing together ever since. In their collaborative poems, it is sometimes difficult to tell who is who.

barn cat scuffle
beside the open door
a pail of pea pods

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.

evening music
don’t know why
the old dog grins

after the rains
blood red
roses

Perry L. Powell lives in College Park, Georgia, USA, and works as a systems analyst. He writes various forms of poetry out of love and loss in the evening.

feather1 (1).jpg

windmill (1).jpg

naked branches (1).jpg

Anna and Chris Maris have been married for 23 years. Chris is a British director of photography who also enjoys stills photography and Anna is an award-winning haiku poet. This is their first haiga collaboration, a result of a ginko in Svarte, on the south coast of Sweden, which they embarked on together earlier this spring.

hanami
the brief comfort
of being in your arms

red ixoras
grandma sipping brandy
drifting in the stars

Christina Sng is a poet, writer, and artist. Visit her online at christinasng.com.

dark dreams
have haunted the night
sunrise
and a frog croaks
and all is well

wild thyme
and oregano
for the spell
I stop praying
enchanted by the scent

while I slept
a woman cried
and a bluesman
played guitar
‘all through the night’

Joy McCall lives in Norwich, England, growing older but not much wiser. Most of her books are available on Amazon.

Endless Sky
for Joy McCall

a tiny fish
struggling against the tide
of night
come let me wipe
your tears away

hold on
to something
anything
the birds will sing
again at dawn

endless sky —
tell me
what else
could
true love be

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.

#76

Posted on May 6, 2016 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to #76 of hedgerow. this week features artwork by Brendan Slater. as always grateful to readers & contributors alike. please have a peek at our poetry / art book reviews page ( https://hedgerowpoems.wordpress.com/poetry-art-book-reviews/ ) as it has been updated. further we have some exciting news to announce in the near future, stay tuned…

https://www.facebook.com/hedgerowpoems/

with love & kindness,

caroline skanne
founding editor

meadowlark–
she asks if I’m
listening

express lane
a celebrity’s
post-baby bod

they must be fighting again
Dad’s playing
with the bristle blocks

Ian Willey is an American social scientist now living in Japan. He hopes to someday see senryu and haiku on the backs of cereal boxes.

this summer, I’ll clothe myself
in colors and fabrics
I want to wear, and not wait
to lose some undue weight
… I ask, how many summers remain?

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.

Ellipsis

When we met there was a lot of noise. A lot of questions and getting to know each other. Now we know each other well. Predicted movements followed by finished sentences. We hold each other after making love. Hold hands while driving but don’t feel the need to force conversation. We graciously, humbly, excitedly live in the . . .

Gabriel Patterson (@GabePatterson77) lives in Las Vegas, Nevada (USA) with his family. He escapes the city’s neon lights by writing poetry.

Brendan Slater is a father and a writer of small poems. He was born and lives in Stoke-On-Trent, England, but he spent four years living in The Netherlands in a small village called Slagharen. He co-edits the E-zine Moongarlic (www.moongarlic.org) and is one of the partners at Yet To Be Named Free Press (www.yettobenamedfreepress.org).

three women
singing siren songs
by the beachfire
rowdy with real ale
blood-red port and pale saké

yellowhammers
in the evergreen, singing
the old song –
a little bit of bread
and no cheese

the poet says
you are kind
and in my head
Robert Johnson
sings the blues

Joy McCall lives in Norwich, England, growing older but not much wiser. Most of her books are available on Amazon.

that summer sky
filled with our childhood dreams…
I sleep alone
under the water-stained ceiling
of a rooming house

this moonlit night
flirts with loneliness
no wine
I shoot the moon down
with an arrow of words

the shards
of our wedding plate
after the fight
I start to know
the sharper pieces of her

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)

#72

Posted on April 8, 2016 by Caroline Skanne

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–

debbiemstrange.blogspot.ca

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

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)

A Starling Murmuration-2.jpg

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.

Small Birds.jpg

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/

#65

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to #65 of hedgerow! this week features work by nine different poets / artist. always grateful to readers & contributors alike.

with love & kindness.

caroline skanne

founding editor

(for new book releases & more–)
https://wildflowerpoetrypress.wordpress.com

(for news & announcements–)
https://www.facebook.com/hedgerowpoems/

rose petals
drifting into her glass
at the garden party
we ponder the fate
of her love affair

reunion
not aged at all
your voice

childhood stories
I return
to the beginning

broken
I reach for a pen
to right myself

my lonely house
under the moon’s stillness—
you and I
running in different directions,
how many lives have we lived?

I sleepwalk
on the ridge
of a poem
I’ll never perform …
the storm inside

Sergio A. Ortiz is the founding editor of Undertow Tanka Review. He lives in San Juan Puerto Rico.

93d66111-27bb-4d2f-a793-284f8175cfdf

penny
for your thoughts…
begging
for your love
til the end of time

when night’s
coldest cold
covers you…
my love will blanket you
til morning

Pat Geyer lives in East Brunswick, NJ, USA. Her home is surrounded by the parks and lakes where she finds her inspiration in Nature. Published in several journals, she is an amateur photographer and poet.

I can’t tell you that
*shrugs*
the purple-fleshed conch shell

cool morning
with every white breath the horse
lifts higher in air

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.

Matryoshka doll haiga Kendall

Mary Kendall lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where she writes poems and endlessly tosses tennis balls to her Labrador retriever. Her current work and publications can be found on her poetry blog, A Poet in Time (www.apoetintime.com). She is the author of a chapbook, Erasing the Doubt (2015) and co-author of A Giving Garden (2009).

a child sways
with her lantern
moths flutter

Michael Smeer was born in Amsterdam and still lives in The Netherlands. His preferred style is the English language haiku. The quiet of a zen moment encapsulated by haiku fits perfectly with his Buddhist soul. Michael is the founder of ‘My Haiku Pond’, a Facebook community dedicated to English haiku and all things related.

flowing into the sea
the Huang He loses itself
… its color too

David He Zhuanglan has been working as an advanced English teacher for 35 years in a high school. So far, he has had a good number of short English stories published in magazines and books abroad.

Joann Grisetti grew up in Sasebo Japan and eighteen other places. She now lives in Florida with her husband and two sons. Her poetry, photos and stories have appeared in a number of print and online journals.

#64

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to hedgerow everyone. what a joy it is to bring you an issue including both short & longer poems, as well as a story! the art will return by next week. you are very welcome to send in your work. thank you for making this a beautiful place…

with love & kindness.

caroline skanne

founding editor

(for new book releases & more–)

https://wildflowerpoetrypress.wordpress.com

(for news & announcements–)

https://www.facebook.com/hedgerowpoems/

the slow descent
into noisy silence
on New Year’s Eve
a spasm of depression
grabs me by the throat

a wedge of geese
held by Lake Ontario …
living alone
in this promised land, I wonder
if I ever left home

a cross
sears the moonless night
my southern childhood

sheep in the road…
where were you last night
when I needed you?

glass slippers
displayed in the pawn shop –
hard times

Pris Campbell enjoys writing and publishing haiku, tanka, haiga and free verse. She has published seven collections of free verse in the small press. A former clinical psychologist, she was sidelined by ME/CFS in 1990. She and her husband live in SE Florida.

winter grey
all my haiku beginning
to look the same

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/)

On Fitting

The struggle
of a fitted sheet
on the bed:
Pulled tight one end,
comes loose the other.
Endless smoothing,
smoothing.
Then after washing,
drying, the sheet
so difficult
to fold,
to force,
into a neat
perfect square
to fit
inside the cupboard;
another struggle.
Only when that
sheet is flying
on the clothesline
in the sun,
in the wind,
sailing out
full and wide,
does it truly fit.
Why?
No struggle.

Tricia Marcella Cimera is an obsessed reader and lover of words. She volunteers locally, believes there’s no place like her own backyard, and has traveled the world. Tricia lives with her husband and family of animals in Illinois/in a town called St. Charles/by a river named Fox.

all afternoon
the purr of the cat
and rain

freezing rain
the tartness of raspberries
on her tongue

definitely not
in the Now
what’s for dinner

Margaret Jones resides in Wisconsin, USA. She enjoys walking in the woods, binoculars in one hand and haiku notebook in the other.

If You Can’t Change a Light Bulb

We always lived in apartments when I was growing up, but my father had big dreams.

“One day, kids, we’ll move to the suburbs. We’ll have a little garden. Maybe even some chickens.”

When my mother heard this she made that sound of hers. I can’t spell it. There aren’t the right letters in our alphabet to spell it. If I had to try, it would start with a ha sound. But it wasn’t ha. It was more disappointed than ha. It was ha with a sigh thrown in. And some exasperation, too.

My father didn’t like that sound.

“What?” he asked, ”what makes you say it won’t happen?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You said plenty.”

Dad was right, that ha of hers did say plenty. It said we were never going to live in the suburbs. We’d never put our hands in the dirt of a garden. There would be no tomatoes or peas or lettuce to pick for dinner. There would definitely not be chickens to do whatever a person did with chickens.

And here’s why:

My father couldn’t change a light bulb.

If you can’t change a light bulb, you can’t live in a house in the suburbs with a garden and chickens.

If you can’t change a light bulb it means you have to live your whole life in an apartment building where there is a super and a super’s assistant — men you call up when the light bulb blows and they arrive within the hour, with a ladder and a flashlight and a new bulb. They carry toolboxes and they not only know the name of each tool but they know how to use them. They have wrenches and screwdrivers and they carry nails in their pockets and hammers hang from special loops on their belts.

My father didn’t know from hammers. He was entirely dependent on the super and his assistant. And not only for the light bulb situation but also for leaky faucets and running toilets and — God forbid — what if water comes in through the window when it rains? What if the thermostat breaks? What if a ceiling tile falls down? What if the refrigerator gets too cold, or too hot, or stops working completely?

Unexpected disasters lurk around every corner. Not everyone can handle them on their own. That is why my family was doomed to a life of apartment dwelling.

That’s what my mother meant by that ha of hers, that was so much more than a ha. Dad couldn’t change a light bulb. There would be no fresh-from-the-earth food for us; no eggs from a chicken; no milk from a cow.

Wait a minute, wait minute, who said anything about a cow?

Well, a girl can have dreams too, can’t she?

I learned that from my father.

Zee Zahava lives in Ithaca, New York

hedgerow: a journal of small poems

Tag Archives: inspiration

#84

#82

#81

#79

#78

#77

#76

#72

#65

#64