#50

today we celebrate the 50th issue of hedgerow! the journal started as a vision of a place celebrating the small poem in its various shapes & forms, and a year later we are nearing 30,000 hits & 1000 likes on our facebook page. but numbers aside, it has been an amazing journey. thank you all for being part of it!

october’s resident artist is Alexis Rotella. find out more about the artist behind the art here — https://hedgerowpoems.wordpress.com/poet-artist-in-conversation/

 

with love & kindness.

 

https://www.facebook.com/hedgerowpoems

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even a little
of you
would be
enough —
crescent moon

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.

 

 

 

Geisha

 

 

 

orion
sleeping pills
dissolving

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.

 

 

 

unnamed-15

Poppies

 

 

 

in a tangle
i plait loose ends…
this twisted life

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.

 

 

 

unnamed-18

Starlings

 

 

 

The child who collects pebbles
cradles the bones of the earth,
gives them meaning.
She walks her own path
straight to the trees.

Jo Waterworth lives in Glastonbury, UK, where she has been writing poetry for many years. She is published in print and online, and her pamphlet of short poetry is available from Poetry Space of Bristol. You can find her blog at jowaterworthwriter.wordpress.com

 

 

 

Persimmon frost

 

 

 

barber shop mirrors
a young boy wonders
about infinity

.

tree hollow
the ins and outs
of another world

.

incoming tide
the old stingray
crosses the sandbar

Simon Hanson lives in rural South Australia where he often walks the back roads down to the nearby limestone coast. Some of his haiku have been hatched on a clifftop overlooking the Great Southern Ocean and others while tiding the house overlooking the kitchen sink.

 

 

 

Migration

 

the art in this issue was brought to you by Alexis Rotella

I’ve been playing with words since I was a toddler. I remember sitting
on our front stoop in Southwestern Pennsylvania with a handwritten
letter from Uncle Bill to my mother. I thought if I stared at it long
enough I would be able to read…

 

https://hedgerowpoems.wordpress.com/poet-artist-in-conversation/

 

 

 

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#37

welcome to #37 of hedgerow! if you haven’t already done so, please have a look at the new ‘poetry & art book reviews’ (https://hedgerowpoems.wordpress.com/poetry-art-book-reviews/). new titles will be added shortly! thank you for being here & happy friday!

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with love & kindness…

 

 

 

once again
my yard breathes
violets and clover …
the sea so close
I forget distant galaxies

.

silver ghosts
dandelion seeds
riding the night wind

.

long gone –
my old dog’s bark
waking me at dawn

Joy Reed MacVane lives on the New Hampshire seacoast and hides out in the summer on an island off the Maine coast.

 

 

 

Lotus openingLotus opening

Alexis Rotella is a well known poet of Japanese forms in English who has been writing since the early 80’s. In the spring of this year, Red Moon Press published her latest book of haiku called BETWEEN WAVES. As a digital artist, Alexis is now working on editing the portraits of celebrities such as Obama, Robert Redford, Steven Tyler, Mick Jagger, the Beatles, and many others. A selection of her haiga appeared in April at danmurano.com thanks to poet and critic, Grace Cavalieri.

 

 

 

Illuminated by fireflies
the dark corners
of night

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.

 

 

 

Willow at the edge of the marsh
wiggles her toe-roots in the cold mud
as the sweet racket
of thousands of peeper frogs
washes through her branchy fingers
and the continuous trilling
gently coaxes the bark from the ends
of buds and their beginnings
with a chorus of
“at long last,
we have made it.
You are safe to grow again”.

Stacey Crawford Murphy savors life in Ithaca, NY.

 

 

 

Yellow Finches

They flock as commuters,
in erratic wavelike patterns—
territorial in construction,
the aggression short-lived.
Residents of open country,
tweets and warbles, ti-di-di-di.

Agile feet grip the catkin
for feeding, the conical
beaks turn bright orange
with the spring molt.

Lew Caccia serves as a professor at Walsh University, where he teaches courses in composition, rhetoric, professional writing, and literacy. He earned his Ph.D. at Kent State University. His recent poetry has appeared in The Storyteller, The Shepherd, The Write Place At the Write Time, and The Penwood Review. This summer, he will present at the Council of Writing Program Administrators Conference in Boise, Idaho. After the conference, he looks forward to a hike somewhere in the Rockies.

 

 

 

dreams of birding . . .
the variety of ringtones
in a waiting room

.

all the swifts in a robin’s song

.

emptying
the hour glass . . .
ocean breeze

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

 

 

 

first warm day
all that pent-up tension
melting

Matthew Moffett lives in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, with his wife and two kids. He thanks you for reading his poems!

 

 

 

ice cream counter
choosing the same flavour
the wasp and I

.

self check out
I wonder how much
I’m worth

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 what keeps her from going insane!

 

 

 

my Beagle sleeps
on her side of the bed …
blossoms falling

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)

 

 

 

speaking to her
for the last time
not knowing          it was

Duncan Richardson is a writer of fiction, poetry and haiku. He teaches English as a Second Language part-time in Brisbane, Australia.

 

 

 

lonely night a child touches the moon with her fingertips

Vibeke Laier is a artist and dreamer who lives in Randers, Denmark. She began writing three years ago and likes the process of capturing moments of the day in small sentences and micro poems… it is a way to be open to the magic.

 

 

 

the cat on her lap
kneading its paws
she sucks her thumb

.

as I fold the page
she drifts off
to Narnia

David Serjeant lives in Derbyshire, UK. He is the current editor of Blithe Spirit, journal of the British Haiku Society. His interests include photography and pottering about (escaping everything) on his allotment. He publishes poetry and works in progress athttp://distantlightning.blogspot.co.uk/ He also writes about his experiences with multiple sclerosis at https://davesmagicalbrain.wordpress.com/