tinywords

Now that’s a headline worth celebrating. Here we are, nearly twenty years after Dylan Tweney started publishing tiny poems, one per day, like a daily vitamin for wordsmiths.

Dylan comments: “When I started tinywords in November 2000, I was bored, wanted to explore the possibilities of text messaging, and craved more poetry in my daily life. I never thought my little project to fuse these three impulses would grow so big or last so long. And I’m continually amazed by and grateful for the work that Peter and Kathe have done since taking over editorship of this site that I think of as ‘the world’s biggest, tiniest poetry magazine.'”

T I N Y W O R D S has grown over the years and now, as issue 20.1 begins, nearly 1,000 poets have seen their work appear in its pages. Today, almost 7,000 folks subscribe to and read T I N Y W O R D S each day, either through our email subscription list or via Twitter. We also get about 10,000 visitors per month on the website.

The background image for issue 20.1 is a late winter scene from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, specifically Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown after its recently completed extensive reconstruction by the Army Corps of Engineers. There is no escaping the power and beauty of nature. The best we can do is marvel at it all and when inspired, write a poem or two. In the issue that follows we have gathered the many voices from all over the world who have done just that.

Congratulations to Alan Bridges, Olivier Schopfer and Seren Fargo who open the new issue with their winning poems inspired by our photo prompt. Their poems are featured below. As always there were many fine offerings well worth reading in the archive.

Thanks to T I N Y W O R D S Assistant Editors Polona Oblak and Ruth Holzer, and to founding editor Dylan Tweney, who also serves as our technical advisor and web page designer.

To all of the poets who sent in their poems for 20.1, and to the readers who return year after year, we say thank you.

Here is wishing you all the very best in 2020. The sands are certainly shifting beneath our feet. A shared poem is always a good idea.

Be well. We are all in this together.

Kathe L. Palka
Peter Newton
Editors, T I N Y W O R D S