#43

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to the latest issue of hedgerow, featuring The White Spaces Series by august’s resident artist Debbie Strange, along with the work of five different poets. grateful to readers & contributors alike!

with love & kindness.

blooming
on both sides of the fence:
forget-me-nots

summer reading …
my old dog on his back
yawns at the clouds

the sand
slips through my clasped fingers …
autumn dusk

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)

Honourable Mention, Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, Tokutomi Haiku Contest, 2014

visible stars . . .
all that I know
I don’t know

so much passion beneath a nickel-sized moon

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

poem previously published in Red Lights, Volume 11, Number 2, June 2015

holocaust of the heart

he was
crippled emotionally
not physically—
the slow descent
into despair

after he jilted me
my outer layers
of protection
peeling off like veneers
in heavy rain

separated—
i lie in a cold
death bed
thick with parched
tears

nothing would
sway his mind
not my love
not my thirst
not my ardent prayers

the bone silence
of an empty tea cup—
deep into
the night
my suicidal breath

holocaust
of the heart
unrepairable
pulverized
into red-rust dust

dark notes
of a howling pound
my sheltered mask
i sink deeper & deeper
into an ebony funk

Pamela A. Babusci is an internationally award-winning haiku/tanka & haiga artist. She lives in Rochester, NY, USA.

first published in Adanna Literary Journal Issue 5 2015
http://adannajournal.blogspot.co.uk/

poem previously published in Ribbons, Volume 10, Number 2, Spring/Summer 2014

my shadow
further cracks …
late monsoon

(referring to ‘drought’)

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.

poem published in Gems, An Anthology of Haiku, Senryu and Sedoka, 2014

winter sunset
the old Bing Crosby songs
Dad used to sing

Anna Cates resides in Wilmington, Ohio with her two cats, Freddie and Christine, writes. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing, and several other advanced degrees related to English studies, and teaches English online for several universities. She is a regular contributor to short form poetry publications, and her first full length collection of haiku and other poems, “The Meaning of Life,” from Cyberwit.net, is now available on Amazon.

sketch only, Winner of The Heron’s Nest 2014 Illustration Contest (front cover)
haiga published in Cattails, September 2014

The White Spaces Series by Debbie Strange —

I love the sense of mystery surrounding white spaces in art. These iPad sketches are not meant to be realistic portrayals, but rather, a means for the viewer to fill in the blanks…

read more about the artist behind the art here —https://hedgerowpoems.wordpress.com/poet-artist-in-conversation/

#38

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to the latest issue of hedgerow! thanks everyone for being here, it’s a beautiful thing…

with love & kindness.

https://www.facebook.com/hedgerowpoems

wire in the wind
the micro-adjustments
of finches
balancing, my feet too discern
the whisper of cross-breezes

heather blossoms
could my words be
as unpretentious

day’s end talk
dishwater sinking into
hydrangea roots

Patrick Doerksen is a student of social work and lives with his wife in Victoria, Canada, where flowers bloom as early as January and it is very difficult to be unhappy. He writes poetry as a way of experiencing life more fully.

Caroline Skanne, Rochester Uk, escapes reality with her rescued staff puppy tigerlily at the nearby frog pond island. more @ https://www.facebook.com/caroline.skanne.9

library returns
the holiday guidebooks
not quite ready

night shifter’s house
a cat this side
of the curtain

after her funeral
sparrows replace sparrows
on her bird table

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 at http://distantlightning.blogspot.co.uk/ He also writes about his experiences with multiple sclerosis at https://davesmagicalbrain.wordpress.com/

family reunion
catching up
with old stories

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!

market plaza
the sheen of pigeons
in sunshine

my father’s walk
increasingly apparent
in mine

Simon Hanson lives in rural South Australia where he loves to walk the back roads at an ambling pace down to the nearby limestone coast. He no longer collects shells, leaving them instead on the beach where they belong, but does sometimes bring home an idea for a haiku or two.

soaking in shade four hundred years old

playing hopscotch
with a cherry pit . . .
the crow’s strut

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

immigration
strips my name, Chen-ou Liu,
of its meaning,
reduces it to a sound
strange to Canadian ears

reading Sisyphus …
from college teacher
to ESL student
my tumble down
life’s slippery slope
(note: ESL stands for English as a Second Language)

No Harbour

The Scottish throb of a seagull’s cry,
the urgence of the surf,
the brownish warmth of Brückner,
the sunset shock of sky,
the sound of rain on the tiled roof,
the homely scrape of wicker–
these are stalled-out memories that I
cannot wharf
in your harbour.

Kilby Austin lives near Durham, UK, with her husband and little daughter. She has written poetry for as long as she can remember.

summer moon how tenderly waves touch paper boats

Vibeke Laier is an 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.

Weeding

I rip weeds from the soil
Like breaking old habits.

Some come up easily,
Satisfying, if temporary-
I know I’ll have to watch
For resurging growth;
Old patterns don’t die quickly.

Some have deep, thick roots
Resisting a pull, they need
Thorough excavation
My aching knuckles caked in mud
Twisting, tugging
The root’s gnarly voice
Laughing at my naivete
That some force
That has preceded
Me by lifetimes
Would pull free, finally,
Just like that
On one simple, sunny day.

But I do my best,
Cut it off as deep as I can reach
Toss it away
And let it be

Let it be good enough for this garden
Let it be good enough for this day of this life

Just let it be better.

Stacey Crawford Murphy savors life in Ithaca, NY.

pushing rocks up small slope
sweat trickles between my breasts

Irene Koronas is the poetry editor for Wilderness House Literary Review. She has three full length books, Portraits Drawn from Many, Ibbetson Street Press; Pentakomo Cyprus, Cervena Barva Press; and Turtle Grass; Muddy River Books. She has numerous chapbooks and poetry in many anthologies. She reviews poetry books for the small press community.

sunstroke
the tan lines beneath
your blue dress

still hung over from last night’s sunset

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

cajun night
the heat of her
french kiss

edging the starlight the mountain’s silhouette

Dave Read is a Canadian poet whose work has appeared in many journals, including hedgerow. You can find his micropoetry on Twitter, @AsSlimAsImBeing.

#35

Posted on June 26, 2015 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to the latest issue of hedgerow. thanks for being here! thrilled to announce that the ‘poetry / art book reviews’ feature of the journal will be launched this coming friday. if you have had work published in hedgerow & you have a book out to shout about, do get in touch. to celebrate i’ll be giving away a signed copy of my book ‘a hundred small poems…’ register your interest by sending a message to —
hedgerowsubmissions@gmail.com & i shall pick one winner at random. thanks everyone i think this will be fun.

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

with love & kindness,

Caroline Skanne

low tide
wandering away
from the world’s sharp edges

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

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.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?

the answer is thirty-two

where do geese go when they die
there is no way to translate that

what moves backwards in a swamp
how little flecks of gold glitter in the mines

when will this alliance be forged
with song and dance of tambourines

who are you dressed in red Thursdays
I have this desire to change the world

how many times will you ask me
why did you have to ask me that

and in distant darkness shone the city lights

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

her smooth hands
collecting pine cones
in a bag

the wind
changes direction
my lonely heart

Jade Pisani, Australia, began to write haiku in 2010. She is a regular ginko participant.

daydream about the children I never had

walking into the morning fog to clear my head

my aging hands more beautiful right now

late afternoon curled into a nap beside you

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

Making Waves

Each new page becomes a paddling pool
you hesitate to dip your toe into.
You stare into its glassed reflection,
shimmering world, fragile,
peaceful, unattainable.
You hesitate, the pen jitters;

the crippling fear of tiny ripples
turning somehow into rapids.
Still you long to close your eyes and jump;
letting go of everything; forgetting the page,
the pool; your head submerged
where every word and every splash becomes miracle.

Clifton Redmond is an Irish poet, a member of The Carlow Writers Co-Operative. He has had poems published in various Journals and Magazines.

evening light
the invisible lace
of swallows

daybreak
a veil of light
over the stars

Simon Hanson lives in a small country town in South Australia where he spends quite a lot of time walking the back roads between paddocks. Some of the cows have become acquainted with his Blue Heeler dog who seems to forget on occasions that it is not her job to round them up no matter how much fun it might be.

Different

I wake up shedding the skin
of a tender lover, pushing it
from behind my teeth, forcing
myself to chew, and swallow.
I let it all slide down my throat
with no regrets.

As I’m brushing my teeth
I’m mentally punching at
my brain letting it know
I will not regurgitate, will
not slip back into weakness.

Today I’m wearing amethyst
armor underneath my little
black dress and ignoring
all of your phone calls.

Raquel Reyes-Lopez lives in Montebello, California USA. She is a Gemini madly in love with life and a moon child. If you squint hard enough you can find her sleeping in the moon’s craters. Follow her at contactraquel.wordpress.com

a river of fire
swept along the street;
some time later,
drops of black rain fell …
I see the hell in his eyes

in Hiroshima
I wake up to the cry
of cicadas …
under the grass
what’s left of angered souls

all our pictures
now I know
I’m made of water

summer sunset
still losing you
bit by bit

left on the trail
I must write
your death poem

Perry L. Powell lives in College Park, Georgia, USA. He works as a systems analyst and writes poetry out of love in the evening. His short poems have been published in Hedgerow,A Hundred Gourds, Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Presence, Prune Juice, Ribbons, small stones, and The Heron’s Nest.

overcast sky…
I look for shapes
in the river’s depths

with the squirrel’s leap the feel of new leaves

Thomas Powell is a potter who lives in County Down, Northern Ireland. Journals in which his haiku have appeared include A Hundred Gourds, Blithe Spirit, Chrysanthemum, Presence, Shamrock Haiku and The Heron’s Nest. He is a winner in The Snapshot Press eChapbook Awards and The Snapshot Press Book Awards. Thomas is also a contributor to A New Resonance 9, published by Red Moon Press.

when he stands up
to end the conversation
it pains me —
always the garden sparrow
wanting to chat till sundown

Anne Curran has been writing short verse forms for about
four years now. She lives in Hamilton New Zealand, a pretty
provincial town in the North Island. She reads and writes poetry as time and inspiration allows. She is inspired by people, memory, landscape, and language.

childhood room —
familiar tree shadows
on the wall

longest day
blueberries
still green

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

hedgerow #34

Posted on June 19, 2015 by Caroline Skanne

thrilled to bring you #34 of hedgerow, an issue that will hopefully make you smile! some exciting news to share with you this coming week, stay tuned. thanks everyone, for being here…

with love & kindness!

so much happiness but no tail to wag

practicing how not to be too honest

hibiscus tea in a sunflower mug mixing it all up

bad handwriting I must want to keep secrets from myself

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

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.

riding the
Midnight Butterfly Express
wearing my
glassy glitter wings I
wonder why everyone
reaches out to touch me

drummer in the
Midnight Butterfly Blues Band
heart beats neon
while a blind poet
misses the light show

got a letter
from Midnight Butterfly
tattered and worn
hand painted haiku moon
stained by indigo blood

jetting in my
Midnight Butterfly car
radio maniac
blaring cosmic questions
I meet myself on the road

lost again
at Midnight Butterfly
Coffee Shop
scribbling runes in my notebook
with skyblueluminous ink

Circus of the Soul
starring Midnight Butterfly
run away with me
to the light show of your mind
join the poetry bizarre

in line at Starbucks
Midnight Butterfly taps
me on the shoulder
a poem pops in my mind
steams off in a coffee cloud

some say
Midnight Butterfly is just
a metaphor
muse in an old photograph
your smokey absinth dreams

wish I could paint
chiaroscuro lightning like
Midnight Butterfly
Joan Jet & Black Hearts
silver studs leather jackets

that carousel
my childhood in hyper-drive
a gold ring quest
chasing Midnight Butterfly
on glossy white horses
into the blue distant sea

Carole Johnston lives and writes in Lexington, Kentucky, USA, although she is from “nowhere zen.”

moored in a cove
the stars above
the stars

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.

birding . . .
he shushes
the cicadas

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

outdoor diner
joined by a party
of sparrows

brush marks
in wet paint
the cat’s tail

falling barn—
unhurried
the drooping roof

starlings
in the chicken house
thieving feed

Ed Higgins’ tanka, haiku, and haibun have been published in various print and online journals. He and his wife live on a small farm in Yamhill, OR. where they raise a menagerie of animals including a pair of Bourbon Red turkeys (King Strut and Nefra-Turkey) and an alpaca named Machu-Picchu.

AT THE BUS STOP

guy next to me
is making earthquake noises,
cracking open the earth,
toppling buildings
with a jerk of his tongue
across the roof of his gums

I hold on thankfully
to poles that do not totter,
stand on a sidewalk
that doesn’t crack,
below a sky that does not fall

so how come he knows
what kind of day I’ve had?

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in New Plains Review, Big Muddy and Sanskrit with work upcoming in South Carolina Review, Gargoyle, Owen Wister Review and Louisiana Literature.

transformers
covered in morning glories
electric blues

rice cakes
that even geese won’t eat
your lies

Scott Wiggerman is the author of three books of poetry, Leaf and Beak: Sonnets, Presence, and Vegetables and Other Relationships; and the editor of several volumes, includingWingbeats: Exercises & Practice in Poetry, Lifting the Sky: Southwestern Haiku & Haiga, and the new Wingbeats II. Recent poems have appeared in Decades Review, Frogpond, Pinyon Review,Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, and the anthologies This Assignment Is So Gay and Forgetting Home: Poems about Alzheimer’s. He is chief editor for Dos Gatos Press, now of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

WHEN LOVE IS NOT ENOUGH

would it help
to get naked
but for a welder’s
helmet

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

the road that goes to Philadelphia
a modern haiku

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.

hedgerow #31

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to #31 of hedgerow! if you haven’t already passed by our new ‘poet / artist spotlight’, have have a peek here — (https://hedgerowpoems.wordpress.com/poet-artist-spotlight/ ). as always, a warm thank you to readers & contributors alike.

with love & kindness.

https://www.facebook.com/hedgerowpoems

https://www.facebook.com/wildflowerpoetrypress

ambulance siren –
an albatross dragging the sun
out of waves

empty home –
mom’s lipstick on a teacup
so vivid

after divorce –
the dog carries your slipper
to its nook

Lavana Kray is from Iasi – Romania. She is passionate about writing and photography. Nature and the events of her life are topics of inspiration. Her work has been published in: Haiku Canada Review, Asahi Shimbun, The Mainichi, World Haiku Association, Daily Haiga, Heron’s Nest, Frogpond, Eucalypt, Acorn, Ardea, Ginyu, Presence, Traversées and others. She has been chosen for Haiku Euro Top 100-edition 2014. This is her blog: http://photohaikuforyou.blogspot.ro

last time
i saw grandpa
just before he died
when I was fourteen
he didn’t know me
but his hand in my hand
knew our kite flying days

Robyn Cairns is a Melbourne based poet who shares her poetry and photography on twitter @robbiepoet.

Tom Slagle loves wilderness, wild rivers, good coffee, literature, travel, play, and kindness. A native of Colorado, he now lives and loves in the desert southwest, USA.

hemming curtains by hand
suddenly my mother…
school summer dresses
sun breaks through the day’s cloud
now I can hang the washing out

Jo Waterworth lives in Glastonbury, UK, where she has been writing poetry for many years. She blogs at jowaterworthwriter.Wordpress.com and has had a pamphlet of short poetry published by Poetry Space of Bristol.

Bear Moon
I’m all out of honey
but please come for tea anyway

Walking Moon
in your brand new sneakers
I can hardly keep up with you

Worn-Out Moon
now is the time
to sink into a lavender bubble bath

Roller Skating Moon
who would have thought you could be
so graceful on wheels?

Purple Moon
I almost mistook you
for a field of irises

Ice Cream Moon
not everyone can handle 3 scoops
but you can

Garden Moon
thank you for reminding me —
nobody owns the flowers

Shakespearean Moon
surely it is better to be
than not to be

Laughing Moon
I love the way
your belly rises and falls

Matchmaker Moon
what a brilliant introduction —
bee, meet flower

Midnight Moon
when you can’t sleep
do you count stars?

Brave Moon
you stood up for me
I’ll do the same for you

Fashionista Moon
on you
the hot pink feather boa is divine

Mango Moon
impossible
to get enough of you

Thrifty Moon
shopping with you isn’t as much fun
as I thought it would be

Tango Moon
claiming the horizon
as your own private ballroom

No-Poem Moon
all I can do is love you
there are no words

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

enchanted garden…
the languages of flowers,
butterflies and birds
are all that remain
when moonlight ceases

Ed Bremson speaks lovingly of the moon in his forthcoming chapbook, Like a Summer Night, https://finishinglinepress.com/product_info.php?products_id=2375

Tony Johnson lives in Moreno Valley, CA where he writes by the light of the moon, seeking his creativity from a dark past and emerging with poems about love, relationships, and childhood. On the side, he is a amateur photographer.

moon lake
paper boat
rendezvous

Vibeke Laier lives in Randers, Denmark. A few minutes of mindful attention helps her to engage with the world. She likes the process of capturing moments of the day in small sentences and micro poems… it is as a way to be open to the magic.

forgotten frost
the mother
I’ll never be

splashing through spring
my goddaughter
in her new pink boots

scan results
the shadow of a fly
in the spider’s web

the universe! in each snowflake

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

beachfront
the ebb and flow
of two worlds

frog pool
so many eyes
admire the moon

silent night
crossing the lake
a falling star

Simon Hanson lives in rural South Australia relishing the open spaces and distant horizons. He spent a number of years in the philosophy department of Flinders University which he thoroughly enjoyed though he did have a difficult time persuading others that Beauty is an objective feature of the universe and not just in the eye of the beholder.

hedgerow #30

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to the 30th issue of hedgerow! we celebrate this milestone with the launch of ‘poet / artist spotlight’ featuring work by four artists. do have a peek! (https://hedgerowpoems.wordpress.com/poet-artist-spotlight/). also a huge thank you to all of you who have continued to support hedgerow week after week… reading, sharing & contributing!

with love & kindness.

s u b w a y |everyone|crammed|sofarapart

low in the bat sky a talon moon

deserted trail
a wagtail
makes way

the length
of my headlights
country road

into the puddle
without a splash
moonlight

strawberry blossoms
the growing list of
boys she likes

Dave Read is a Canadian poet whose work has appeared in many journals, including hedgerow. You can find his micropoetry on Twitter, @AsSlimAsImBeing.

the weight
of my worries
dream catcher

Night train

East of yesterday
I open the sleepy eye
Of my compartment

Silent and nameless
Lines appear outside and shapes
Still covered in mist

Hills and soft valleys
Waves of an endless green band
Drawn across the sky

Melanie Barbato has recently completed her doctoral studies on Indian Philosophy at LMU Munich/ Germany.

I trip upon the times
When your ghost haunts me
Like a wind that doesn’t blow

Allison M. Peck is an awe-struck traveller on the planet earth who currently resides in the “wilds” of Northwest New Jersey, USA. She is a lover of the natural world, a gardener, mother, physical therapist, and creator of messes- in no particular order of relevance.

Static

When
my
grandfather
died,

his
radio

turned
itself
on.

Mike Jewett is editor and publisher of Boston Poetry Magazine. His work has been published, or is forthcoming, in Eunoia Review, Yellow Journal Magazine, Clarion, Latent Image, Three Drops from a Cauldron, Pankhearst, Coup d’Etat, Orion Magazine, and The Bitchin’ Kitsch. He roosts with his punk rock wife and punk rock son.

dark blue tree
at midnight what is
green

dew in the starlight in the dew

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

hedgerow #29

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to #29 of hedgerow, featuring nine poets & artists. as mentioned last week, a new section of the journal called ‘poet / artist spotlight’ is about to be launched, followed by a ‘poetry / art book review’ page. it was scheduled for this week but has been moved forward to coincide with the celebration of the 30th issue of the journal! any updates will be posted at the link below. thanks everyone for your continued support in helping hedgerow grow into a thing of beauty!

with love & kindness…

https://www.facebook.com/hedgerowpoems

https://www.facebook.com/wildflowerpoetrypress

overcast-
she paints the sun
with sidewalk chalk

Gabriel Patterson lives in Las Vegas, Nevada (USA) with his family. He escapes the city’s fast pace by writing haiku.

swing… drive…
pick-axe into bare hillside
swing… drive… swing…
to dig a hole to put a tree
drive… swing… drive–

the air is nice
thoughts float light

Mark Kaplon’s short poems have recently appeared in Lilliput Review, the Aurorean, Right Hand Pointing, Frogpond, Ribbons and elsewhere. His chapbook Song of Rainswept Sand is available on Amazon and from Finishing Line Press. He lives in Hawaii, USA.

morning stillness
the warmth of tea
on my tongue

from the budding oak
a bird call
then an answer

the cat on my lap
cleans his shoulder
then my book cover

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). His work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Learn more about Ben at http://www.benmoellergaa.com.

slow afternoon
refilling the salt shaker
then the pepper one

palomino field
ripples in the wind,
shivers, shudders, foams,
moves like waves.
golden, flaxen, froth
on sea of grass;
ever-moving yet
forever at rest

Freya Pickard is a cancer survivor, trying to re-discover her creativity after bowel cancer, surgery and chemotherapy. She is the author of Dragonscale Leggings and is currently writing poetry in order to try and get her creative flow to return. Freya blogs at either http://purehaiku.wordpress.com or http://dragonscaleclippings.wordpress.com depending on how she is feeling…

unblinking
one fixed star outstares
the stargazer

Lisa Cherrett lives in north Wiltshire, England, and works as an editor in book publishing. She writes haiku and cinquains to force herself to pay proper attention to her surroundings. She blogs at ‘The poised moon’, lisannie44.wordpress.com.

lightning flash
just for a moment
the crow

sure as day
dawn slips into
the rooster’s yard

Simon Hanson lives in a small country town in rural South Australia. Being a bird lover he is alarmed by the cat recently smuggled into the house by the rest of the family who have agreed at his request to plant two trees for every bird it might catch. Much to his surprise he has grown attached to the cat but has decided to up the ransom to three trees.

Burlington, Vermont — June, 2013

out of the rain and into a tea shop
we lunge for the last available table
drop our wet things onto an empty chair
shake ourselves off

the menu is brought by a young man with an old face
he brings a small brass bell, too

we are instructed to ring the bell
after we’ve considered all the tea choices
which are mind-numbingly numerous

we are still dripping rain all over ourselves
not in the best of moods
the day got off to a rocky start
we don’t sleep well in hotels

I’m not wearing the right shoes
your eyes are burning from allergies

but here is the menu
a dense tome devoted to all things Tea
and also, the little bell
it is all so dear and pretentious and exactly what it should be

you order something chilled and milky and sweet
I order lavender tea

we ask the waiter to leave the bell right there
in the middle of the table
in case we just want to ring it again for no reason at all

we stay a long time

you order a second cup of chilled tea
I ask for something different
something that doesn’t taste like drinking a bubble bath

we watch as the candle
(not really a candle —
more like a blob of wax in a small glass dish
with a wick that seems like an afterthought)
burns out

after a while
you look out the window and say
it has stopped raining

later
looking back on everything
I think this was the best hour of our trip to Vermont

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

hedgerow #28

Posted on May 8, 2015 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to #28 of hedgerow. thanks for stopping by! during the next week we’ll be launching a new section of the journal ‘poet / artist spotlight’ featuring work by four poets. it will be an ongoing feature, along with the ‘poetry / art book review’ page. thrilled! further updates will be posted at the link below. perhaps also have a peek at our sister site wildflower poetry press.

with love & kindness…

https://www.facebook.com/hedgerowpoems

https://www.facebook.com/wildflowerpoetrypress

twilight
the slow pull of
an accordion

rolled-up pants —
bark boats race
beneath the bridge

seeing
what will be . . .
first blossom

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

Patricia Hartman is a retired professor of English. She enjoys watching birds and reading poetry in Cleveland, Ohio and was delighted to have this little Chickadee visit her deck.

day long weeding
the last dandelion
under my bench

in the compost
tea bags
brewing again

The Way Memory Slips In and Out

after she rinses out the teapot
she can’t remember what to do with it

standing in the cold pink light of early morning
her robe hanging off her shoulders
her bare feet numb on the linoleum
cradling the clean teapot in her chilly hands

patience patience

her brain shifts slightly
left, right

oh yes

and she proceeds to make herself
a pot of tea

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

first spring
the east wind carries
the smell of home
(for new immigrants)

tenth year in exile…
tinge of green on the maple
in my front yard

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).

so many dreams…
a life spent skipping stones
across the moon

cool side of the pillow…
I wonder why
I still dream of you

bonfire guitar…
we let our bodies be marionettes
strung to the shimmering stars

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.

David J Kelly is an ecologist, based in Dublin, Ireland, where he finds scientific and artistic inspiration in the natural world.

Words wander out
by breath to the edge of the sky
where, with time enough
alone, they range over and yonder and,
fledgelings no longer,
migrate finally back to fall,
effortless, into place

hedgerow #19

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Caroline Skanne

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

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 #12

Posted on December 12, 2014 by Caroline Skanne

welcome to #12 of hedgerow & the last one for the year. thrilled to bring you a record-breaking 22 poets & artists. grateful for all your support over these past three months, thanks to you hedgerow has grown into a thing of beauty!

feel free to keep sending in your submissions for the new year. the date for #13 will be announced here & on our facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/hedgerowpoems). you can also follow hedgerow on twitter (https://twitter.com/hedgerowpoems).

also a special thanks to Veronika Zora Novak for her beautiful tribute dedicated to the memory of Serbian haiku poet Verika Živković, who sadly passed away this week. to echo Veronika’s words ‘as a community we will continue to celebrate your legacy…’

may 2015 be filled with magic, dreams & creativity for all of you!

with love & kindness,
caroline skanne

Veronika Zora Novak

deeper
into the cosmos…
white lotus

dublje
u kosmosu…
beli lotos

dublje
u kosmosu…
bijeli lotos

(Tr. by Milena Burčul Mrkela)

‘With great sorrow to know of her untimely death, a deeply heartfelt tribute to our dearly beloved sister Verica Živković. As an international, multilingual award-winning haiku poet, may Verica’s profoundly beautiful, passionate and insightful poetry withstand the test of time…’ Veronika Zora Novak

David J Kelly

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

Robyn Cairns

outback skies
spread with stars
where the red dirt road
has no end

underneath her skin- moss lined and honey veined

Robyn Cairns is a Melbourne based poet who shares her poetry and photography on twitter @robbiepoet.

Bauke Kamstra

Poetry dispels the illusion of separateness

when we touch
when we are touched

we are no longer alone.

Will these words explain
my life to me

I don’t know

maybe it is not this life
I’m writing about.

Bauke Kamstra is a poet & visual artist residing in Nova Scotia. His poetry has been published in Vine Leaves Literary Journal, Poetry Nook, Shot Glass Journal, and Spark. His new book We All Reach the Earth by Falling is available at Amazon and B&N.

Susan Constable

when ordinary
is more than enough …
skunk cabbage
blooming in the ditch,
a spider spinning her web

it took years
for my sister to ask
my opinion …
even rivers and robins
have something to say

Susan Constable lives on the west coast of Canada, where she’s been writing mainly haiku and tanka for the past nine years. She is currently the tanka editor for the online journal, A Hundred Gourds.

Stella Pierides

winter sun
piling kindling
for the fire

Stella Pierides lives in Neusaess, Germany, and London, UK. Her poetry book, In the Garden of Absence, won a HSA Merit Book Award 2013, for books published in 2012. Stella manages Per Diem: Daily Haiku for The Haiku Foundation. Homepage: http://www.stellapierides.com

Maurice Devitt

Circle of Life

When you hold the photo
up to the light, who do you see?
The boy I was or the man
I have become,
already shrinking back
to that world of ludo
and slip-on shoes,
where names walk in and out,
never staying long enough
to make an impression.

‘I like short poems because they are easier to smuggle across borders…’ Maurice Devitt, Dublin, Ireland

Shloka Shankar

shoreline…
broken seashells scatter
my dreams

goodbyes…
my tears dry up faster
this time

Shloka Shankar is a freelance writer who resides in India. She is the editor of the literary & arts journal, Sonic Boom. (http://sonicboomjournal.wix.com/sonicboom)

Susan Diridoni

A Yorkshire Noon

out the window
tall trees still bare
sun shows the green moss
upon the branches usually under
leaf canopy
so like the trees at the Abbey
yes, we’re going inward
our crosses being shared
and transformed
it is our Easter

Susan Diridoni, from the San Francisco Bay Area, is on the trail of the muse, no matter where she roams.

Debbie Strange

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.

Rachel Sutcliffe

waiting room
I wonder what
forever feels like

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 keeps her from going insane!

James Roderick Burns

Only through rain
and beaten grey skies
can the sun burn gold

James Roderick Burns’ short-form collections ‘The Salesman’s Shoes’ and ‘Greetings from Luna Park’ are published by Modern English Tanka Press. He lives in Edinburgh with his wife and daughter, and serves as Deputy Registrar General for Scotland.

Ruth Zuckschwerdt

torrential spring rains
with lightning and thunder
tender new leaves

Ruth Zuckschwerdt, Switzerland, started writing to get her thoughts away from health issues. Publication of Haibun, Haiku and Tanka. Her poetry reflects travels to faraway places. She is now retired and lives in Switzerland.

Zee Zahava

great blue heron
washing dishes
at the kitchen sink —
what are you doing in Grandma’s apron?
what are you doing in my dream?

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/

John W. Sexton

a thousand gardens
hide him … the demolished
porcelain golem

John W. Sexton lives in Ireland and was found inside a Christmas cracker in 1958, swaddled in a rather ridiculous joke about bassoons, or probably baboons, or was it spoons? His fifth poetry collection, The Offspring of the Moon, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2013. In 2007 he was awarded a Patrick and Katherine Kavanagh Fellowship in Poetry.

Dave Read

she paints
her toenails black
new moon

water drips
through the coffee filter
I dilute
my thoughts before I
share too much with her

Dave Read is a Canadian poet, whose work has appeared in many journals, including hedgerow. You can find his micropoetry on Twitter, @AsSlimAsImBeing.

Mike Keville

You scare me

No sound.
Except the wind—
a lone wolf
calling for a lost mate.

As chills
explore my back;
they race to be the first
to make me shudder.

My chest held
within your vice;
tightened by
imaginary tales.

Please—
just tell me
how much you spent?

Mike Keville from London AKA Mikeymike.

Christopher P. P. White

For Her

In the spoils of sunshine–
When the birds sing you to sleep
At 5 in the morning
And you get into bed
With the woman that you married
For love and not for comfort
Or conformity,
You see the real reason
Why you need to wake up
In a steady handful of hours
After.
Not for money or a wage
But for her–
Simply for her.
The birds are still singing
That same song
And the beauty of life
Is embellished
In their serenade.

Christopher P. P. White is a poet and writer from Derby, England. He hopes that you don’t judge him too harshly regardless of what you’ve heard.

Chen-ou Liu

A Short Story about Love

at her window
two shadows entwine
in one embrace …
like vampires sucking blood
from my memories

Sitting at my desk, swathed in darkness, I use the new telescope to zoom in on them – watch her rise and fall as the man guides her slow circular movements. His hands slide up from her hips to her breasts, continue to her shoulders, altering her rhythm, pulling her down onto him…

I open the drawer, take out a pocket knife, rush down to the basement parking lot, and find his piercing red Jaguar. Crouching, I plunge the tip of the knife into one of his tires with climactic fierceness; then I stab and I stab…the second, third, and fourth.

I rip out
each page of our life
this sultry night
the dream soaks my bed
with her moaning

Chen-ou Liu is currently the editor and translator ofNeverEnding 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)

Caroline Skanne

Caroline Skanne is obsessed with anything wild & free, she is the founder of hedgerow: a journal of small poems. find her @ https://www.facebook.com/caroline.skanne.9 & https://twitter.com/CarolineSkanne

Michael Cantin

In Quandary Dilecto

Anne makes me want to love a woman
I know I shouldn’t.
To learn all the romance languages they never teach.
Those tongues only foreign to the uninitiated
Curses levied with need in lieu of simple bitterness
and goodbyes fraught with acceptance.
The sublime loneliness of the other woman
or the other man.
I know I shouldn’t.
I know this with every fiber of my moral tapestry.
And yet conventions are constructs,
and my wants intersect my needs.
The sting of the stitches sings a siren’s song.

Michael Cantin is an aspiring poet and sloth fanatic residing somewhere in the wilds of Costa Mesa, California.

William C. Patterson

For Love

What the mind idealizes & the body desires,
something unknown accelerates, keeps, & makes last.

Some call it soul,
others heart or spirit,
but by whatever name
(& all words lack something essential)
it preserves, persuades, & protects.

It is there in the patter of a child,
in the needful relief of travel,
& in the shared glance of any given day.

It is the promise that makes forever possible;
It is the excitement of knowing one thing doesn’t disappear.

Proof

”[…] Everything in me
Wanted to bow down, to offer up,
To go barefoot, foetal and penitential,

And pray at the water’s edge.”
[Seamus Heaney, ”Triptych” III: At the Water’s Edge]

It wasn’t the picture I was after,
the picture was proof.
The truth is: proximity was all
I desired.

That somehow closeness could prove
friendship, connection, community
led me to the side of the road,
against the barbed fence,
to the edge of the water.

Sometimes seeing is all prayer is.
Or is it: prayer is what seeing is?

Of the three prayers:
praise, forgive, & need,
I prefer the blue heron,
two legs in the water,
bill stabbing southward,
crown raised or fallen.

The moment wings stretch
into lazy flight is
prayer answered
& prayer denied.

There is no sense in waving
as you disappear,
but let this moment
be proof against
the slow current
of doubt.

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.

publication credit —

the poem (without artwork) ‘half moon’ by Caroline Skanne, appeared previously in ‘Bright Stars 5: An Organic Tanka Anthology’ edited by M. Kei, Keibooks