Excited to announce that #4 of vines is now up online… read it here!
ps Don’t forget to send in your submissions for the summer issue of hedgerow (#128).
all best,
Caroline Skanne
(Editor)
vines #4 is up!
Reply
Tag Archives: tanka art
#99
welcome to #99 of hedgerow.
this week features work by Chad Lee Robinson, Robert Epstein, Christina Martin, Mary Kendall & R.D. Kendall, Mary Jo Balistreri, Alan Summers, Mike Rehling, Chen-ou Liu, Jan Benson, Ken Slaughter, Louise Hopewell, Pat Davis, Julie Warther, Zee Zahava, Fred Andrle, Mike Gallagher, Billy Antonio & Elizabeth McMunn-Tetangco.
please note that submissions to hedgerow are now closed. there will be an announcement on our fb page once we open for submissions in the new year.
https://www.facebook.com/hedgerowpoems/
please also note that bios are no longer included in the journal. if you have a new book out or other important news you wish to share, do ask & we might make an exception.
to enjoy this week’s bumper issue, click on the link below!
hedgerow-99-edited-by-caroline-skanne
with love & kindness
caroline skanne,
founding editor
#88
welcome to the latest issue of hedgerow. i hope you all enjoyed last week’s special feature. kids poetry & art will be a standing feature of hedgerow. more updates about how to submit to ‘kid’s corner’ coming soon! grateful to readers & contributors alike. we are currently trying out a new format, please click on the pdf link below to read this friday’s offerings…
hedgerow-88-edited-by-caroline-skanne
#72
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–
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
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.
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)
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.
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/
#71
welcome to #71 of hedgerow. thanks everyone for making this a beautiful place. the art in this issue was brought to you by Anita Virgil (please find her bio at the end of this issue). enjoy!
with love & kindness,
caroline skanne
founding editor
a heated debate
each calls the other
the other
Ian Willey is a sociolinguist and English teacher from Ohio now living in rural Japan with his wife and three children. He believes that senryu have great potential not only as an art form but also for political and cultural satire, and hopes to see their popularity spread.
haiku: anita virgil
photo: chad gurchinoff
my train of thought
interrupted by the news –
two ideologies
coming down the track
in opposite directions
.
seeking shelter
in a cold, bare room
he curls up
on the wooden floor –
blue moon in the window
.
he wants to know
what’s on my bucket list –
suddenly
this desire to eat an apple
from the inside out
Susan Constable lives on the west coast of Canada, where she’s been writing mainly haiku and tanka for the past ten years. She is currently the tanka editor for the online journal, A Hundred Gourds.
haiku & art: anita virgil
haiku first published in roadrunner issue V3
her tiger lilies
blooming
in the back garden …
she shifts a card
in her game of solitaire
Anne Curran is a Japanese verse forms poet who lives in Hamilton with her cat Misty. She loves to write and to be happy doing creative things. She has lived many lives but thinks that to be a small time poet is her most magical pastime.
haiku: anita virgil
photo: jennifer v. gurchinoff
haiku first published in world haiku review;
reprinted as a haiga for haigaonline
Rumours of War
Down the back of my throat trickle sorrows.
They are not mine: martyr-dust –
pollen in the arms of the wind.
In sleep I burn on sun like a golden plate;
men have dead-branch arms; minds burst
showering red confetti.
Anchor-like, axe blade reflects the waves;
orange beacons and grey waves,
– the blood of the sea.
Ruth Asch is a poet by night, mother of four and sometimes teacher by day. She published a book of poems Reflections in 2009 (St Austin Press, available at amazon). She loves to translate foreign language poems into real poetry in English and hopes to bring out another book of her own in the not-too-distant future. Originally from London (UK) she is now living and working in Spain.
tanka first appeared in MET v2n1, 2007.
tobacco stained
and scarred —
why would you let
these calloused hands
caress you
.
as if I wasn’t
here at all
the cold
spring wind
cuts through me
.
moaning the blues —
in time
each blossom must fall
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.
ekphrastic poem: anita virgil
photo: chad gurchinoff
the art in this issue was brought to you by Anita Virgil —
Anita Virgil, USA, was introduced to haiku by William J. Higginson in 1969 and was a member of the original three-person Committee on Definitions for H.S.A. with Harold G. Henderson. President H.S.A.1973. Several collections have been published since 1974. Two new ones appeared in October 2015 and the latest, in February 2016. Essays, haiku, senryu, tanka, haibun, haiga, many podcasts for Haiku Chronicles and interviews of her are online.
hedgerow #24
welcome to #24 of hedgerow! a warm thank you to contributors & readers alike. if you have a look around the site, you will notice a few new additions, including book reviews & poet spotlight. exciting times.
with love & kindness.
the robin dips
below the fence
sunset
.
from
her
balcony
the
starlit
city
.
giving in
for now
low tide
Dave Read is a Canadian poet whose work has appeared in many journals, including hedgerow. You can find his micropoetry on Twitter, @AsSlimAsImBeing.
early morning
before the alarm
the cat
A pharmacist by profession, a haiku poet by nature, Nancy Brady reads and writes, living on the coast of Lake Erie in Huron, Ohio. She has two books of poetry: Ohayo Haiku and Three Breaths.
ice ages and motel mini fridges
tumbling over the
endless mountains
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.
first warm day . . .
leaf-shaped holes
in the ice
.
midway
tying the jacket
around my waist
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
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/
plum breeze
i breathe petals
into your kiss
Grant Savage is an Ottawa, Ontario, Canada amateur poet and photographer. After the recent, long cold winter in Eastern Canada, he is increasingly being recognized as the fair weather animal he has long considered himself to be. A poetry writing, and perpetually hungry groundhog. Sleepy greetings from Ottawa!
on the shelf
Selected Poems by Chen-ou Liu
a nagging voice
at the back of my mind
says, is that all there is?
held by her words
You’re a useless poet …
I walk out,
slamming the door
behind my old self
she tells me,
I just found
a studio apartment
the eyes I love most
focus somewhere else
for a week
no one but the wind
comes to call …
the flames of self-doubt
envelop my body
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, 2014Turtle Light Press Biennial Haiku Chapbook Competition).
a touch of malice
builds in a March wind …
our enthusiasm
for cherry blossoms
begins to wane
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.
Alexis Rotella (Arnold, Maryland, USA) served as Haiku Society of America President in 1984, her famous poem Purple appears in Creative Writing: An Intro to Poetry and Fiction St. Martin’s Press, Teaching with Heart (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2014).
Queen of Hearts
On our way home from dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant, Blue and I find three playing cards face-down on the sidewalk near our house. Blue turns them over, one by one, as we try to guess what’s on the other side. They are the seven of clubs, three of spades, and queen of hearts. We didn’t guess a single one right, though we both wanted to say queen of hearts but were embarrassed to be that corny. I’m superstitious and don’t want to bring the cards into the house. I hold them by their corners and carry them to the nearby mailbox, leaving them face-down on the rounded top for someone else to discover. By the next day they are gone. But later that week, coming out of a different restaurant, we see another card, the jack of clubs, face-up on the street. We step over it.
hurrying past
the fortune-teller’s window
i stumble
Zee Zahava live in Ithaca, New York and is the editor of brass bell, an online haiku journal:
http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com
hedgerow #19
welcome to #19 hedgerow, bringing you ten different poets & artists, including for the first time some very short fiction! thank you all for turning up. it is a beautiful thing…
if you haven’t yet passed by our sister site wildflower poetry press — https://wildflowerpoetrypress.wordpress.com/
with love & kindness
The Journey Itself Is Home
for Matsuo Basho
I carry the dead weight
of cliched poetry
on the road
to the Interior
cherry blossoms drifting
Like the shadow in the morning, the workshop lecturer’s comment lingers in my mind, “There are two kinds of traveler-poets: those who look at the map and those who look in the mirror. The first are embarking on their journey, and the latter are returning home.”
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, 2014Turtle Light Press Biennial Haiku Chapbook Competition).
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.
out at sea
with no wind in my sails…
the hardest
place to be
is by your side
Sergio A. Ortiz, Editor http://undertowtankareview.blogspot.com/
reunion …
sailing in every puddle
thunder clouds
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.
The 365th Day
This is the day we do that summing up.
Annoying, isn’t it, the way
we tally and sort the year’s days
into the things – or people – we like and those
that caused us pain? We inventory
and discard, if we’re smart, whatever
no longer works, or what
carries no joy. We have this need
to take stock, as though we
were running a giant store full of
stuff, boots and gloves, or jars
of face cream and scented soaps.
This year let’s
let it alone,
think instead of the faint yellow blush
on the forsythia. Soon we can snip
its branches, hammer the stems
against the stone walk, set it all
in warm water in an old jar.
The small blooms, and then
tender green leaves will unfold
in the corner window.
Forcing spring
in midwinter.
Lynne Viti teaches writing about law, technology and media at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She has written and published on such disparate topics as law, television, gardening, fashion, and growing up in Baltimore. See her links to publications on her blog: stillinschool.wordpress.com.
pencil pine–
letters you wrote
to the moon
Robyn Cairns is a Melbourne based poet who shares her poetry and photography on twitter @robbiepoet.
Steve Wilkinson, Co.Durham, England. Editor of the Bamboo Hut and currently exploring the avenue of TanshiArt.
Strangers
I sit on the front steps waiting for my ride. I have to be careful not to get into the wrong car. Strangers pull up in front of my house all the time and I jump up and greet them like long-lost friends. Sometimes this scares them and sometimes it scares me. I’m always having to explain about being nearsighted.
Familiar
Once in a restaurant I waved to myself in the mirror because I looked so familiar. I was critical of my haircut but other than that I looked like someone I might like to know. I gave myself a friendly smile, along with the wave. This could have been embarrassing but luckily nobody else noticed.
Excited
In the dream my friend tells me she is studying “Berlitz” and I get all excited, thinking she said “burlesque.”
Zee Zahava lives in Ithaca, New York, where she leads weekly Writing Circles in her downtown studio. She is the editor of brass bell, an online haiku journal: http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com
lemon gin
the sun sets
earlier today
winter winds
he still makes her
blush
Dave Read is a Canadian poet whose work has appeared in many journals, including hedgerow. You can find his micropoetry on Twitter @AsSlimAsImBeing.
Veronika Zora Novak is simply a daydreamer.
hedgerow #13
welcome back to hedgerow! the first issue of 2015 brings you 16 different poets & artists. as always, grateful to contributors & readers alike, please keep sending in your work as well as spreading the word, every effort really counts!
with love & kindness…
Pamela A. Babusci
Pamela A. Babusci is an internationally award-winning haiku/tanka & haiga artist. She lives in Rochester, NY, USA.
Stacey Murphy
Shoveling
what if
while shoveling tonight,
I stop
just for a moment
cease the stooping, stabbing, groaning and lifting
turn my face skyward
close my eyes
hear the wind
as my shoulders relax
the handle slack in my unclenched hands
my ghost age 6
rides in on that wind
whispers, giggles
the gust of cold –
breathless
like the moment
at the end of a wicked sled run
flakes collecting
on my eyelids
like they did when
I finished making snow angels
just lying there, collecting them
like wishes
like potential
icy absolution
melting away
all flaws
all complaints
all guilts, real or imagined
we are clean in this frosty night
new in the world
once again.
Stacey Murphy is happiest when her thoughts are clear, short and haiku shaped, but living in Ithaca, NY helps too.
Chase Gagnon
safe inside a box
the christmas bulbs
from our shattered family
*
reaching for the wind…
in another life
I was a willow
*
perched on my lap
she tells me the owl
is her spirit animal
Chase Gagnon is a student from Detroit, who loves staying up all night drinking coffee and writing poetry. His poems have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies over the past two years.
Lizz Murphy
in my arms
a wounded eagle or
a half-waking moment
*
some are quiet about it
a wren barely bending the stem
a blackbird changing shadows
Lizz Murphy has published twelve books. Her seven poetry titles includePortraits: 54 Poems and Six Hundred Dollars (PressPress), Walk the Wildly(Picaro Press), Stop Your Cryin (Island Press) and Two Lips Went Shopping(Spinifex Press print and e-book). Her next title Shebird is forthcoming (PressPress). Lizz has been a featured poet in festivals and programs from the Illawarra to Darwin and Launceston. She is available for workshops and mentoring etc.
David J Kelly
David J Kelly lives and works in Dublin, Ireland, where he finds scientific and artistic inspiration in the natural world.
Zee Zahava
white butterflies at the window —
snowy morning —
my nearsightedness
*
another orchid blossom falls my grey hairs also shedding
*
I didn’t want to care so much but then I did — little ant
*
bowing to the setting sun my shadow walks into the sea
*
these long winter evenings
we listen to the moon
we listen to the stars
we listen to the beat
of our own hearts
Zee Zahava lives in Ithaca, N.Y. She writes most of her poems in a small notebook while taking her early morning walks. She is the editor of brass bell, an online haiku journal: http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com/
Archana Kapoor Nagpal
walking uphill …
one by one my steps
before my shadow
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.
Mike Keville
bad temper
even my shadow and I
are not talking
*
family tree
the seed that fell
further away
Mike Keville from London AKA Mikeymike.
William C. Patterson
Leaf Smoke, Sun Streak
Not until this moment,
the sky impossibly coral streaked
& filled in by downy cloud,
did I accept the end of another year.
Some of what goes up does not come back the same:
the leaf that fell now rises as smoke,
its rustle now crackles,
its color now roasts,
& its rust smells of cherry, oak, & smoky peat.
soon, I know, the cold rains will come,
the leaves’ revenge, the end of fire,
the long sleep of seed & soil,
until the green fuse lit:
pop of bloom, crack of ice, hum of bird return.
but now, this evening that holds the cold away at a flames length,
a sky beholden not to art,
there is no sense in holding on to the past,
just being here now, just seeing & smelling
the end of another season is enough to settle this month’s doubts.
William C. Patterson lives, teaches, and writes in northeast Kansas. The poems come from his life with his family, his life teaching literature and composition, and the daily commute between these two lives.
Julie Warther & Meik Blottenberger
Julie Warther – Dover, Ohio (words)
Meik Blottenberger – Hanover, Pa (photograph)
Julie and Meik both came from other forms of writing to haiku. Now, they collaborate and support each other in their haiku habits.
Nells Wasilewski
five days of mourning
broken by
a cardinal’s song
Nells Wasilewski lives in the United States where she retired from the mortgage industry in 2011, and began pursing her lifelong dream of writing; she has had her work published in several Journals, magazines and books.
Janet Qually
foster children
start writing winter poems
will hearts be touched?
outside
wanting in
Janet Qually (USA) has been published in several journals and enjoys writing all forms of poetry. She frequently creates computer graphics to illustrate her work.
Alexis Rotella
I tuck in my dolls
tell them
not to be scared
Mom and Dad
at it again.
*
As close as I can get
to my dead mother
her friend
who misses her
every day.
*
Sleek black crow
like a drone
it glides over
a farmer’s
fallow field
Alexis Rotella (Arnold, Maryland, USA) served as Haiku Society of America President in 1984, her famous poem Purple appears in Creative Writing: An Intro to Poetry and Fiction St. Martin’s Press, Teaching with Heart (Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 2014).
Paula Dawn Lietz
Tangled
tangled and sticky thick web drags
like a forgotten anchor pulling
me deep into murky depths
of shallow
forces of the current bend
the willow straining
I panic it will break
will I
break
I hold on
fearful in
my grasp
knowing
if I let go
I
will
d
r
o
w
n
Paula Dawn Lietz ( Pd Lietz ) is an accomplished multi-genre artist, photographer and poet. http://www.pdlietzphotography.com
Jon Wynne
Tears
Tears are just a way
To wash the dust from your dreams
Dry them carefully. Look!
See how they sparkle in the Sun
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.’
Julie Bloss Kelsey
driving home
under the inquisitive gaze
of a spotted fawn
*
despite the clouds
I still believe …
rose moon
*
cirrus at sunset —
a line of fire rainbows
ignite the ocean
Julie Bloss Kelsey (@MamaJoules on Twitter) just earned her certification as a Maryland Master Naturalist.
hedgerow #11
welcome to #11 of hedgerow, bringing you 13 different poets & artist. the next issue will be the last one for this year, the theme is ‘reasons to write’, feel free to interpret as you please. very excited about the print version scheduled for early 2015. it will feature work published throughout 2014; last chance this coming friday. more details to follow regarding this venture. as always, grateful to contributors & readers alike, please keep sending in your submissions as well as spreading the word, every effort really counts! with love & kindness…
Zee Zahava
red gloves give me strength walking into the wind
I knew you’d arrive today —
in my dream
the call of a bamboo flute
Zee Zahava lives in Ithaca, N.Y. She writes most of her poems in a small notebook while taking her early morning walks. She is the editor of brass bell, an online haiku journal:http://brassbellhaiku.blogspot.com/
Diana Matisz
‘Some of my best stories, have been written with my eyes’… Diana Matisz, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA http://lifethrublueeyes.wordpress.com/ & http://about.me/diana_matisz
Kat Lehmann
morning bird
sings its song
It knows no other song
to sing
no other bird
sings it
the world is made
beautiful
in a new way
my birth place
a distant memory —
fireflies
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
Debbie Strange
Lovelorn Moon
one pair
of tundra swans
silhouetted
a pas des deux
across the moon
a loon’s
plangent tremolo
how eloquently
you plead your case
for going
in the pond
a great white egret
w r i n k l e s
on my face
and the moon’s
Debbie Strange is a published tanka and haiku poet, as well as an avid photographer. Her current passion is for creating haiga and tanshi (small poem) art.
Jon Wynne
This Morning’s Walk
This morning’s walk
Was quick – but not too quick
To stop and lend an ear,
Even the greyest skies
Have a tale to tell.
A billion raindrops
Beat time upon the trees and
Danced in circles on the puddled road.
Listen!
The streams on the tarmac
Are singing
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.’
Jane Dougherty
Washed winter white
the trees stand
bare branches in the darkness
full of night sounds
and the silent moonlight.
Jane Dougherty lives in Bordeaux by the river, where she writes poetry and poetic, mythological, lyrical fantasy.
Julie Warther & Meik Blottenberger
Julie Warther – Dover, Ohio (words)
Meik Blottenberger – Hanover, Pa (photograph)
Julie and Meik both came from other forms of writing to haiku. Now, they collaborate and support each other in their haiku habits.
Robin Dawn Hudechek
Courtship
The boy sees the girl
from his place on the sidewalk in the rain.
Her curls are sun bright
and warm as a window pane.
He wants to throw a rock or climb a leafy hedge
anything for a smile or a sideways glance–
her lips on his cheek,
or in the small of his back.
Her breath steams the window;
her fingers leave delicate prints.
He thrusts his hands in his pockets.
Robin Dawn Hudechek lives in Laguna Beach, CA with her husband, Manny and two beautiful cats, Ashley and Misty. More of her poetry can be found at http://robindawnh.wordpress.com./
Clifton Redmond
Coping with Loss at Ten
‘The heavens are opening,’ you said
and I rushed to the window
pressed my face against the cold glass
looking for a glimpse,
but all I saw was disappointment.
There were no angel’s feet dangling,
no gentle strums of harps
sneaking through the muted clouds.
Nothing but rain, empty streets,
puddles, reflecting the locked door
that you had passed through
and forgot to tell me you were going.
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.
Caroline Skanne
Caroline Skanne, rochester, uk, obsessed with anything wild & free, she is the founder of hedgerow: a journal of small poems. https://www.facebook.com/caroline.skanne.9 & https://twitter.com/CarolineSkanne
Carole Johnston
we dream alone
and come together again
you used to
follow packs of dogs in woods
imagine battles with trees
I drew maps of fairyland
in my pocket
small tan river stones
smooth as memory
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
Mathias Jansson
Mathias Jansson is a Swedish art critic and poet. He has contributed with visual poetry to magazines as Lex-ICON, Anatematiskpress, Quarter After #4 and Maintenant 8: A Journal of Contemporary Dada. He has also published a chapbook of visual poetry and contributed with erasure poetry to anthologies from Silver Birch Press. Homepage: http://wordshavenoeyes.blogspot.se/
Maurice Devitt
Spider/Man
How easy it must be
to forget
what never happened
and something found
may not have been lost.
The sky may darken
but the length of a minute
is still the same,
whether we rush in expectation
or sit and watch
as a spider walks on stilts
across a bedroom floor,
not sure
if he is coming or going.
‘I like short poems because they are easier to smuggle across borders…’ Maurice Devitt, Dublin, Ireland
hedgerow: a journal of small poems 