tinywords

issue 9.1
Fall/Winter 2009-2010
tinywords issue 9.1

Fall/Winter 2009-2010

The poems and works within this

collection are copyright © their
respective authors and artists.
Haibun for Bill Higginson

I started publishing haiku in 2000,

before I really even knew what it was. I
found poems that I liked in a book and
started sending them to a mailing list, to
friends’ inboxes, to their pagers, to my
phone. One haiku per day. Nothing
more. The list grew and I built a simple
website to go with it. From the
converted gardening shed on the back of
my garage — my roughly-finished office
— I sent haiku winging out over digital
networks around the world.

After awhile, it became clear that it was

more than just a small circle of friends
who were reading tinywords, so I
stopped borrowing haiku from books
and started publishing my own, as well

1
as asking people on the list to send in
their own. My early efforts at writing
haiku were, like those of most educated
in American schools, exactly seventeen
syllables. Easy enough, or so it seemed
at first: But soon I found I couldn’t write
or get enough haiku I liked to keep the
daily pace going.

Desiring a wider audience — and

needing more good poets — I sought
listing in search engines. Bill Higginson
responded, adding tinywords to the top
of the haiku list that he curated for the
Open Directory. It was like turning on
an engine: The site took off, buzzing
with an infusion of readers and writers
who had discovered the site through
Bill’s help, and who were eager to
contribute haiku, or comments, or just
read and share with their friends.

2
 hum of the laptop
watching a lost world flicker to life

Bill’s help didn’t stop there. He

contributed haiku, both his own as well
as his translations of the ancient
masters, and generously offered
suggestions on how I could improve my
own haiku. His books provided an
invaluable, expert and open-hearted
education in the deeper aspects of the
art. And he was a generous
correspondent, always finding time to
reply. He could be prickly: Several times
I had to adjust the design of the website
because of his complaints about how his
haiku were appearing. Of course I
resented these criticisms, but after I
steamed about them for awhile, I wound
up conceding his points and making the
changes he suggested. They always
made the site better. In time, with my

3
labor over PHP and MySQL code and
the occasional pointed comment from
Bill, tinywords evolved a clean, simple,
minimalist design that kept the focus on
the very brief poems that were its heart,
and enabled each one to shine forward
on its own terms, one per page.

The burden of maintaining tinywords

grew, and as the mailing list topped
3,000 subscribers the number of
submissions grew overwhelming. With
work and family also weighing heavily
on my time, tinywords seemed more and
more like a burden. I walked away from
haiku altogether in June 2008. I
couldn’t even bear to look at my e-mail
inbox, no longer maintained tinywords,
and I even stopped reading haiku
journals. So when a friend wrote in
October of that year to tell me that Bill

4
had died, I didn’t get the message until
months later. And I didn’t have the heart
to reply when I did.

There’s little I can add to George

Swede’s elegant eulogy to a man whose
intelligence, scholarship, generosity and
poetry have touched many people’s lives.
I never even met Bill Higginson. Yet he
was a great patron of this site, and a
friend.

over the bay

a jet banks into the haze

d. f. tweney

5
alone in the library
I open
to autumn

Kath Abela Wilson

6
Roosevelt Island
the ruins of the hospital
touched by graffiti

Barry Goodmann

The crumbling hospital building on

Roosevelt Island used to house smallpox
patients in the 19th century.

7
Yet Our Life Is Sweet

Sleepy after the sun

the house is full of light
spilt from our eyes.

Soon our eyes are empty

and we see.

John Emil Vincent

8
california sunrise
traffic in the canyon
begins to stall

Mike Farley

9
in one breath the whole autumn

Valeria Simonova-Cecon

10
a thousand dreams
yet, this one —
ashes in the breeze

Jeffrey Winke

11
strip mall
a wild turkey pecks
at a hubcap

Barry Goodmann

12
fall migration
the growing flock
of binoculars

Deborah P Kolodji

13
first stars . . .
the timer turns on
the X-mas lights

Bill Waters

14
autumn wind —
looking up for a fly ball
lost in falling leaves

Kathe L. Palka

15
doesn’t matter
where I’m going —
autumn wind

Israel López Balan

16
scattered leaves —
two guitar picks
on the blues man’s headstone

Charles Rossiter

17
watching dad struggle
to remember our names
december sky

C. William Hinderliter

18
a leaf’s skeleton
tossed by the wind —
those moments
when laughter filled
the garden

Laryalee Fraser

19
autumn sunlight
the old dog unearths
her favorite toy

Melissa Spurr

20
christmas lights . . .
the ambulance flashing
in all the windows

David Serjeant

21
through autumn leaves a teal-trailed
wake of light

John Barlow

22
toll booth lit for Christmas —
from my hand to hers
warm change

Michael Dylan Welch

23
old snow
the streetwalker
gives Santa a hug

Barry Goodmann

24
autumn cascade —
in and out of the foam
a plastic bottle

Valeria Simonova-Cecon

25
bow, if you will
marigold’s blossoms
dried brown

Jeffrey Winke

26
late autumn walk
the many paths
I could have taken

Melissa Spurr

27
in the air
rain in the rain
air

David Stark

28
quiet morning
the continuous beeping
of an auto alarm

Mike Farley

29
dew frost ~
the horse shivers off
crystal light

Narayanan Raghunathan

30
with a crooked branch
I knock the last leaf
off the tree
winter nightfall

Barry Goodmann

31
Evening prayer — a flickering candle,
rainfall.

Jon Summers

32
no more bread —
I’m a shovel in the hand
of winter

Dana-Maria Onica

33
early light
my dream drifts out
the open window

Jeffrey Winke

34
silent snow
the coldness
between us

Claudette Russell

35
surprise
party

i
hang

my
toupee

on
the

hat
rack

Ed Markowski

36
I’ll put it back in the earth, as soft as
dust :: a word too much

Grant Hackett

37
garden Buddha
knee deep in dead leaves
once again
plans for the year
have gone astray

Joanne Morcom

38
whirling snow
divorce papers fall
from a red folder

Roberta Beary

39
everything
for nothing:
job offer

Jeffrey Winke

40
thunder
interrupting
thunder

David Stark

41
footprints
the hollow boom of breakers
in the fog

Mike Farley

42
30

He is young.
He could be younger.
His hands shake.
Even propped on the bar.

His nights:
he stands so ready:
his face: a mark:
the close of claws.
And passed:
after a pause.

John Emil Vincent

43
outside the bar
men like broken houses

Matt Hetherington

44
in smoky twilight
i remember how light
his casket was
yet i can’t pick up his toys
still scattered in the yard

John Stone

45
low evening fog —
I walk
no dog

Gosia Zamorska

46
Midwinter snowstorm
highway at a standstill
I mistake the vagrant
for my long-dead father
his smile so vacant

Scot Siegel

47
winter stars without you to name them

Roberta Beary

48
Where are your friends?
You lean over,
the little boy, crumpled.
— Those were my friends.

John Emil Vincent

49
park bench
the blind man’s glasses
reflect the sunlight

Artur Lewandowski

50
And don’t snow geese and immortality
take their shadows from the sea

Grant Hackett

51
between
the falling snow
raven

peter h. pache

52
the light in the back
of the flower shop
winter moon

Garry Eaton

53
winter dusk
when dad
would phone

Roberta Beary

54
burnt toast
no matter what I do
the rain seeps in

Cindy Tebo

55
snow all night
the silence
thickens

Ann K. Schwader

56
 washing up
she looks at the backyard pine
its old nest

karasu / Ross Clark

57
winter mist
the scarecrow’s heart
a nesting sparrow

André Surridge

58
the first brush-stroke
black
the sound of thunder

Sandra Simpson

59
desert morning
a coyote licks ice
on the tumbleweed

Barbara A Taylor

60
Rain overnight —
the mist on Mynyddislwyn
melts almost as quickly
as it takes me
to write about it.

Jon Summers

61
a spot of light
from the hand mirror
travels up and down her arm

shadow patterns
her neck

Harold Bowes

62
elevator silence
our shadows
cross on the floor

David Stark

63
deep snow —
I put my feet
in your footsteps

Gosia Zamorska

64
so like bones
the bone-white branches
of the birch tree

Bill Waters

65
casino lights
your bad luck ringing
all their bells

Joanne Merriam

66
cold morning
touching my breasts
remembering

Genie Nakano

67
traffic jam —
from everywhere the snow
heading nowhere

Helga Härle

68
a stone
next to a frozen pond
I long to skip
to another time
another place

don miller

69
Trees blossom into coral
polyps and wave. Tiny bright
squid in shades of pigeon-feet
pink litter concrete sidewalks.

Deb Scott

70
3 a.m.
the dog fetches
yet another stick

Ray Rasmussen

71
haiku history lecture
doodling
paper lanterns

Aubrie Cox

72
Previous Publications

page 13 ("fall migration," by Deborah P

Kolodji): First published in Mainichi
Daily News, December 2007.

page 15 ("autumn wind," by Kathe L.

Palka): Previously published in Spitball:
The Literary Baseball Magazine.

page 21 ("Christmas lights," by David

Serjeant): This haiku previously
appeared in Blithe Spirit 17:1.

page 38 ("garden Buddha," by Joanne

Morcom): Previously published in the
tanka journal Gusts: Contemporary
Tanka and the author’s poetry book
about the blue moon.

page 70 ("Trees blossom into coral," by

Deb Scott): Previously published in A
Handful of Stones, June 8, 2009.

73
tinywords 9.1: Fall/Winter 2009-
2010.

Edited by d. f. tweney.

Cover Art & this page art by Aalix Roake.

for the latest: tinywords.com

74
About the Contributors

John Barlow co-edited The New Haiku

(2002), and since 2007 has been on the
editorial staff of The Red Moon
Anthology. Other works he has edited
have been honored by the Haiku Society
of America and the Poetry Society of
America. His own books include
Waiting for the Seventh Wave (2006)
and (with Matthew Paul) Wing Beats:
British Birds in Haiku (2008).

Roberta Beary’s book, The Unworn

Necklace, won a Poetry Society of
America Finalist Award.
www.robertabeary.com

Harold Bowes’ poems have appeared in

various publications. Ravenna Press
published his book If Nothing Else in
2004. Harold edits Alba, an ezine
dedicated to short poems.
http://www.ravennapress.com/alba/

75
karasu / Ross Clark is the author of 2
chapbooks of haiku and 7 volumes of
poetry, and a founding editor publisher
of Australia’s only haiku journal, Paper
Wasp. He is currently creatively
unemployed, writing poems, haiku and
folksongs during a Brisbane summer.
http://members.optusnet.com.au/paper
wasp/

Aubrie Cox is an English literature and

creative writing student at Millikin
University. Her haiku have appeared in
bottle rockets, The Heron’s Nest,
Modern Haiku, and Chrysanthemum.

Natalie d’Arbeloff is an
artist/writer/book-
maker/cartoonist/comic philosopher or
philosophical comic living in London,
UK. Evidence of all this can be found on
her website:
http://www.nataliedarbeloff.com

Garry Eaton is a retired, jack-of-all-

trades Canadian on the west coast of
British Columbia. He has been
practicing haiku since 2006. He is
interested in the way the discipline is
refocusing his attention on, and
improving his appreciation of the gift of
life.

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Originally from California, Mike Farley
writes from Red Lodge, Montana, where
he recently retired with his wife Shirlee
from their twenty years on a hay and
cattle ranch. His poetry is rich with the
images of the high plains, mountains,
weather, wildlife, livestock, ranch work
and outdoor recreation with which he is
daily surrounded. Although he has
contributed his work to many online
haiku lists, he has never been formally
published.

Laryalee Fraser lives in British

Columbia, Canada. In 2006 she
compiled an online haiku anthology: a
procession of ripples.
http://laryalee.users.sunwave.net/rippl
es.htm

Barry Goodmann (bgoodmann at

aol.com) is a poet, writer and editor who
lives in the New York metropolitan area.
He has published poetry on several
websites and in various literary
magazines.

Grant Hackett: I write small poems and

make indexes for books in a small town
in western Massachusetts. I believe
passionately in the ability of the one line
poem to make an infinite music. My blog

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of one line poems is called Falling Off
the Mountain.
http://fallingoffthemountain.blogspot.c
om/

Helga Härle is a Swedish poet and

creative writing teacher, enjoying haiku
as a way of tracing the moment . . . and
sharing it. Some of her English haiku
have been published in magazines like
the Heron’s Nest, Frogpond and Acorn
to mention a few; some of her Swedish
in various Swedish mags and haiku
anthologies.
www.haikurymden.se

Matt Hetherington is a writer, musician,

and non-godfather living in Melbourne.
His most recent collection is I Think We
Have (Small Change Press, 2007). He is
also on the board of the Australian
Haiku Society.
http://www.haikuoz.org/

C. William Hinderliter lives in Phoenix,

Arizona and is a graduate of two rival
universities (Arizona State University
and The University of Arizona). Despite
being a registered hypnotist with
degrees in psychology and history, he
prefers spending his time writing poetry.
This year, his work has appeared in a

78
variety of online and print publications,
including Acorn; Ambrosia;
Chrysanthemum; Prune Juice; The
Heron’s Nest; The Mainichi Daily News;
and white lies: the 13th volume of the
Red Moon Anthology for English-
Language Haiku.

Deborah P Kolodji enjoys haiku walks in

her native Southern California, inspired
by the beach, local mountains, and
desert. A member of HSA and president
of the Science Fiction Poetry
Association, she moderates the Southern
California Haiku Study Group at the
Pacific Asia Museum. Her poems can be
found in a variety of journals, both on
and off the web.
http://dkolodji.livejournal.com

Artur Lewandowski: I live in the center

of Poland. I’m in my middle-ages. I
learn how to write haiku among my
friends who publish with me on the
Polish site abc.haiku.pl.

Israel López Balan: I’m a mexican

buddhist with a jewish name and
mayan-spanish last names, who writes
japanese haiku in english . . . What a
cocktailized world!

79
http://mercado-de-
pulgas.blogspot.com/

Ed Markowski lives & writes in Auburn

Hills, Michigan. His haiku, senryu,
haibun, free verse poetry, & short fiction
has appeared in print & electronic
journals world wide. He has presented
his work at a variety of venues including
The Landmark Pub in Brooklyn, New
York, The Old Miami Club in Detroit,
The National Arts Club in Manhattan, &
at The Chautauqua Institution in
Chautauqua, New York.

Joanne Merriam is the editor of Seven

by Twenty and has had poems in Alba,
Amaze, The Fiddlehead, Roadrunner
Haiku Journal and Scifaiku.
joannemerriam.com

Originally from the Midwest, Don Miller

has been living in southern New Mexico
for 20+ years. Over the past 5+ years
his haiku, tanka, haibun and other short
poetry have been published in several
on-line journals and/or print magazines.

Joanne Morcom is a writer, social

worker and certified laughter yoga
leader in Calgary, Alberta. Her poetry
postcards are available from pooka

80
press, her scifaiku chapbook A Nameless
Place is available from Sam’s Dot
Publishing and her haiku book A Piece
of Eggshell, written in collaboration
with The Magpie Haiku Poets, can be
ordered from the author at her website
www.joannemorcom.com.

Genie Nakano is a columnist with the

local Gardena Valley News in Gardena,
California, and has been featured in the
Rafu Shimpoo and Daily Breeze. She is
a dance and yoga teacher by trade.
GenieYogini.Com

Dana-Maria Onica: 49, eye doctor. I’m

"an ant that climbs up the edge of the
book". (Joe Salerno)

Peter H. Pache is retired, living in rural

New Mexico on a small farm.

Kathe L. Palka is the author of two

chapbooks of free verse, The Grace of
Light (Finishing Line Press), and Faith
to See and Other Poems (Finishing Line
Press), both available through
Amazon.com Her work in Japanese
forms has appeared in bottle rockets,
Frogpond, Modern Haiku, paper wasp,
red lights and Ribbons. She placed third
in the Haiku Society of America’s 2009

81
Gerald Brady Memorial Senryu Contest.
http://kathepalka.com/

Ray Rasmussen’s haiku, haiga and

haibun and articles have appeared
regularly in the haiku genre journals.
He’s the managing editor of
contemporary haibun online. He
dreamed that in a previous life he was a
university professor, but now spends his
time feeding the dogs, doing housework,
writing and doing photography.
http://raysweb.net

Aalix Roake is by birth an American,

artist and writer, who is now living and
working in New Zealand. She has had
her paintings and writings published,
alone or sometimes simultaneously in a
publication, (such as
BlackmailPress.com) and previously
contributed to tinywords as an haiku
author
AalixR.com.

Charlie Rossiter is an NEA Fellowship

recipient and 3-time Pushcart Prize
nominee who has been writing and
publishing haiku for a long time. He a
past guest-editor of Modern Haiku. His
latest book (not haiku) is All Over
America: Road Poems (2009),

82
available at
www.Foothillspublishing.com

Claudette Russell is a retired high school

English teacher who lives with her
husband in rural Connecticut. Her
poetry has been published in various
print and online journals.

Ann K. Schwader’s haiku have appeared

in Modern Haiku, Frogpond, The
Heron’s Nest, bottle rockets, and
elsewhere. Find more about her writing
on her Web site:
http://home.earthlink.net/~schwader/

Deb Scott lives in Portland, Oregon. She

blogs at Stoney Moss and is one of the
directors at Read Write Poem
(http://readwritepoem.org/). Other
places have been kind enough to publish
her words, too.
http://stoneymoss.org/

David Serjeant lives in Derbyshire, UK,

where he works as a local government
officer. His work has been published in
journals such as Blithe Spirit, Presence,
Simply Haiku, Shamrock and
Chrysanthemum amongst others.
http://distantlightning.blogspot.com

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Scot Siegel writes from various roadside
shoulders around Oregon. His full bio
can be found at
www.pw.org/content/scot_siegel.

Valeria Simonova-Cecon, Russian

residing now in Cividale with her
husband, Italian haijin Andrea Cecon.
She lives a very calm and simple life and
finds her inspiration in the beautiful
nature of the North-Eastern Italy.

Sandra Simpson lives in Tauranga, New

Zealand, a city built around estuaries
and with an ocean beach. She is
secretary of the committee that looks
after the Katikati Haiku Pathway and is
editor of Haiku NewZ. In 2009 she was
a co-winner of the Snapshots Haiku
Calendar contest and placed third in the
NZPS International Haiku Contest.
http://www.poetrysociety.org.nz/haiku
news

Melissa Spurr is a copywriter,

webmaster, poet, photographer and
artist. She lives in Joshua Tree,
California with her husband, two dogs
and a cross-eyed cat.

David Stark is a multimedia developer

living in New York City with his wife and

84
two cats. He is a long-time reader of
tinywords and is thrilled by its return to
publication.

John Stone is a musician who

sometimes writes things down. He has
been published in the usual places and
still believes love will find a way.
http://johnstones.webs.com/

Jon Summers: I live and work in South

Wales, and find that my time is being
rapidly filled with three young children
(including 2 year old twins), a wonderful
wife, and the local church, which means
that tiny-words are about all I’ve got
time to manage.
http://hums-jms.blogspot.com/

Born in Hull, England, André Surridge

lives in the city of Hamilton, New
Zealand. He is the winner of several
national and international writing
awards and his writing has been widely
published and anthologised.

Barbara A Taylor lives in northern NSW,

Australia. Her poems appear in many
Japanese short form journals and ezines
including Mainichi Daily News, Asahi
Haikuist Column, Lynx, Presence,
Ginyu, Sketchbook, Ribbons, Frogpond,

85
Wisteria, 3lightsgallery, Haiku News,
Shamrock, tinywords, Simply Haiku,
Kokako, Moonset, Magnapoets,
Eucalypt, and elsewhere. Poetry with
audio is at http://batsword.tripod.com.

Cindy Tebo is a long-time resident of

Catawissa, MO. Her work has appeared
in various publications and anthologies.
http://thecatagorian.blogspot.com/

D. F. Tweney is the publisher of

tinywords. He lives in the San Francisco
Bay Area with his wife, two young
children, dog, and house. Haiku are the
only poems he has time to write.

John Vincent lives in the woods of

Massachusetts and dearly wants to
adopt a puppy.

Bill Waters lives in Pennington, N.J.,

with his wonderful wife and their three
amazing cats.
http://twitter.com/Bill312

Kath Abela Wilson listens poetically to

science lectures as she sketches and
writes her way around the world with
her Caltech mathematics
professor/musician husband. Kathabela,
a member of HSA and Southern CA

86
Haiku Study Group, is creator and
organizer of Poets on Site, a Pasadena,
California-based multi-media poetry
performance group. You can hear her
and her band of poets read mostly short
poems here:
http://www.pacificasiamuseum.org/_di
gital_lounge/audio_tours.aspx

Jeffrey Winke lives in Milwaukee,

Wisconsin in a warehouse loft with an
obstructed view of Lake Michigan. He
writes haiku, haibun, and articles about
heavy equipment moving dirt.
www.electricdaybook.com.

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