Submissions to tinywords 22.1 — and a new writing prompt
Winter’s chill is still with us here in the northern hemisphere but spring is around the corner. TINYWORDS 21.2 has now ended with Bob Lucky’s haibun, The Triumph of Art. The submission window for TINYWORDS 22.1 opened on February 1st, so if you haven’t yet and would like to, please send us your small poems, haiga, or brief haibun to be considered for our next issue: TINYWORDS 22.1.
Sending work to TINYWORDS is a simple two-step process. Just check out our Guidelines and click on the Submissions Page from Feb. 1 through Feb. 28, 2022. One month window, as usual.
To keep things lively while we work on the new issue, we present a new writing prompt. This rural Arizona image of a road lined with magnificent old saguaro cacti presents a bit of wabi-sabi. Or perhaps you see it a little differently. We hope this lonesome trail conjures a short poem or two.
Be sure to share it with us: Leave your best efforts in response to the photo prompt in the comment box below and the TINYWORDS editorial team will share the best of the best in TINYWORDS 22.1, due out in late March, 2022.
Thanks again for dropping by. We look forward to reading what you have to say.
Be well,
The editors
February 13th, 2022 at 8:59 am
sand and dolls
the tequila bottles rattling
towards sunrise
Alan Summers
February 13th, 2022 at 10:18 am
Hallelujah
the end of the road
is in sight
Adelaide B. Shaw
February 13th, 2022 at 10:53 am
water break
saguaro giving us
the finger
February 13th, 2022 at 11:26 am
saguaro noon
the road’s only shadow
dust devil
February 13th, 2022 at 11:44 am
migrant crossing—
one saguaro leans
on another
February 13th, 2022 at 12:30 pm
woodpecker echo
in the elf owl nest
crumbling adobe
February 13th, 2022 at 12:43 pm
hovering kachinas…
saguaros give a lift
to the spirits
February 13th, 2022 at 1:22 pm
lightness
of the cobweb-
cactus leaf
February 13th, 2022 at 1:28 pm
the empty arms
of saguaros…
missing native women
February 13th, 2022 at 1:37 pm
growing discomfort . . .
what lies at the end
of the colonnade
February 13th, 2022 at 2:08 pm
.
reaching out
to something beyond …
"what's a heaven for?"
.
February 13th, 2022 at 3:30 pm
walking down
the empty streets of my dreams
saguaro cactus
******************************************
February 13th, 2022 at 4:25 pm
tire treads
the cacti keep
their own counsel
February 13th, 2022 at 4:35 pm
In her dust
Truth pricks
More than cacti
February 13th, 2022 at 5:48 pm
endless prayers
raised to wide open
blue skies
February 13th, 2022 at 6:30 pm
not dying
but pierced through –
saguaro moon
February 13th, 2022 at 7:12 pm
Standing so tall
In spite
Of it all.
February 14th, 2022 at 2:56 am
lonely road
the difficult path I took
without you
February 14th, 2022 at 4:36 am
Fantastic!
February 14th, 2022 at 4:35 am
badlands…
echos of the lone ranger
on the radio
February 14th, 2022 at 4:46 am
chatting to one another
across the path
friendly
arrogant
cacti
February 14th, 2022 at 6:00 am
saguaros
embraced by the wisdom
of the desert mothers
February 14th, 2022 at 7:06 am
old road
the saguaro recalls
the sound of water
February 14th, 2022 at 11:53 am
My brother and I sat in the station wagon’s way back—two pull-up facing seats next to the rear window. The world receded in a rectangular frame above the blank white lid of a crank-up camper. Out west, he and I were like the only people in a theater showing a road movie. The car faded into silence—or the unearthly rhythm of the Indian drums at an Arizona roadside attraction. Behind the gaudy cement teepee, we’d seen a drummer tussle with his wife (who sold turquoise jewelry from a dusty case) for her cracked plastic purse.
who waved goodbye
forever
us or the saguaro
February 14th, 2022 at 11:53 am
arms upraised
in gestures of praise
saguaro rain
February 14th, 2022 at 12:28 pm
fleeting clouds
above humble supplicants
mighty saguaro
February 14th, 2022 at 12:30 pm
humble supplicants
beneath fleeting clouds
mighty saguaros
February 14th, 2022 at 12:34 pm
inch by inch
decade by decade
saguaro stretch skyward
marking the way
to elsewhere
February 14th, 2022 at 1:41 pm
cactus leaves,
counting and recounting
moons and days
February 14th, 2022 at 1:41 pm
alone
away from the world …
saguaro sky
February 14th, 2022 at 5:45 pm
doll shop tomorrow’s broken promise
February 15th, 2022 at 4:23 am
Doll shop — an interesting take.
February 14th, 2022 at 6:57 pm
on a desert road
the sculptor revisits
his subject
—
learning perspective
i follow the road
to the vanishing point
February 15th, 2022 at 2:01 am
Lined with cacti –
lonesome trail
to dreams
February 15th, 2022 at 4:45 am
beyond
interpretations
stillness
February 15th, 2022 at 8:07 am
ghost town
the road not taken
for a reason
February 15th, 2022 at 8:08 am
ghost town
all the signs lead us
to lost
February 15th, 2022 at 12:04 pm
I thrive beneath your
eye, my saquaro roots
unseen, you will see
February 15th, 2022 at 2:04 pm
old road
stand
as stability
February 15th, 2022 at 2:12 pm
Should read:
old road
saguaros stand
as stability
February 15th, 2022 at 2:44 pm
early start
the tallest saguaro
pokes the moon
February 15th, 2022 at 2:50 pm
desert daybreak…
a seguaro points
at the day moon
February 15th, 2022 at 2:51 pm
as if Earth stretched her dry old bones saguaro
— Marietta McGregor
February 15th, 2022 at 5:26 pm
rock bottom the only way is up
February 15th, 2022 at 6:54 pm
barren land
in a time out of mind
stiffened figures
February 15th, 2022 at 9:28 pm
monsoon season
saguaros waiting
with open arms
February 15th, 2022 at 10:15 pm
cacti-lined street…
a rain cloud pays
a rare visit
February 16th, 2022 at 6:40 am
a detour saguaro shadows stretching the truth
February 16th, 2022 at 7:02 am
columns of saguaro
a road delineated
columns of saguaro
February 16th, 2022 at 8:09 am
saguaro cacti
standing at attention –
a humbling welcome
February 16th, 2022 at 8:19 am
arms raised –
thanksgiving
for little things
February 16th, 2022 at 8:31 am
not withstanding
the hardships of life –
standing tall
February 16th, 2022 at 9:38 am
dust devil touching the sky saguaro cacti
February 16th, 2022 at 2:58 pm
saguaro blossom our youngest still the tallest
February 16th, 2022 at 3:04 pm
an owl nestled in a saguaro boot many moons
February 16th, 2022 at 9:55 pm
desert energy
out here the only pipelines
are the cactus
February 17th, 2022 at 6:51 am
wired posts
within these desert cacti
the new old
February 17th, 2022 at 11:34 am
dry heat shrinking the pleated folds of saguaros
February 17th, 2022 at 6:20 pm
hungover dawn
a cowboy hits
the lonesome trail
February 17th, 2022 at 9:25 pm
dirt road patrol on the side of overkill
(posted on behalf of Helen Buckingham)
February 17th, 2022 at 9:25 pm
travelling show hall of mirrors
(posted on behalf of Helen Buckingham)
February 17th, 2022 at 9:26 pm
troops on standby
time slows while they wait
for the signal to go
(posted on behalf of Helen Buckingham)
February 18th, 2022 at 6:11 am
aging saguaros
still guarding
the desert's secrets
(posted on behalf of Claudette Russell)
February 18th, 2022 at 8:23 am
these desert flowers
grown from thoughts of deepest eyes
within feeling minds
February 18th, 2022 at 9:03 am
lifting the sky
high over Arizona
saguaro arms
(in "Lifting the Sky" 2013, ed. by Scott Wiggerman)
February 18th, 2022 at 9:40 am
dusty road
through saguaro
so alone
February 18th, 2022 at 12:31 pm
I think I will visit
The doll maker on the left
It’s just off the path
March 3rd, 2022 at 8:41 am
__ Often, the values of life are… in your words Linda… "just offf the path".
Nice, parallel! _m
February 19th, 2022 at 5:10 am
take up their cross
backpacking in cold and heat―
the Way of St James
February 19th, 2022 at 5:42 am
on the trail
the water carriers
anchored
February 19th, 2022 at 8:06 am
refugee convoy
at the end of the road
Orion
February 19th, 2022 at 8:06 am
one road to sunset
the sky
filled with trails
February 19th, 2022 at 8:26 am
Poppy Day
a legion of shadows
on Via Appia
February 19th, 2022 at 9:11 am
war headlines…
the heavens trembling
on Atlas' shoulders
February 20th, 2022 at 2:25 am
earworm
crossing my path . . .
Spaghetti Western
February 20th, 2022 at 2:29 am
sudden shower . . .
the cowboy
caught short
February 20th, 2022 at 2:39 am
empty valley echo of the dolls
February 20th, 2022 at 2:42 am
accompanied
by a soundtrack…
desert wind
February 20th, 2022 at 2:46 am
nothing but dust . . .
I take a chance on the road
of loneliness
February 20th, 2022 at 6:25 am
eighty matters
as I step forward
sunrise
February 20th, 2022 at 12:31 pm
family reunion
the whole gang lines up
to greet me
February 20th, 2022 at 7:09 pm
beckons
the golden path…
raising arms
February 20th, 2022 at 11:58 pm
Thanksgiving dinner
another friendly battle
of the wishbone
February 21st, 2022 at 7:07 am
rocks roll
ground to smoothness
Soft to my touch
February 23rd, 2022 at 1:47 pm
the end of the line of saguaro wave goodbye
February 23rd, 2022 at 10:13 pm
now here the road to nowhere
February 24th, 2022 at 6:00 am
die hard
old cowboy
one hand on hip
February 24th, 2022 at 7:56 am
out in the sticks
yet even here the need
for a linesman
February 24th, 2022 at 9:28 am
nature's barbs
we're not the only ones
to erect deterrents
February 24th, 2022 at 10:12 pm
(posted on behalf of Tim Murphy)
guard of honor
the road
less traveled
*
derelict buildings
the cacti reach
for the sky
*
sky road
the thorny problem
of freedom
February 25th, 2022 at 12:10 pm
up in arms
the buffet line
out of shrimp
(posted on behalf of Lorraine A Padden M.A. )
February 27th, 2022 at 1:51 pm
Love it.
February 25th, 2022 at 9:21 pm
Saguro Catus
Guardians of the desert
Waiting visitors
February 26th, 2022 at 9:52 am
doll shop
saguaros guard
a lost dream
February 26th, 2022 at 9:59 am
the geezer smiles
still coloring outside lines…
abandoned brothel
Philip Whitley
February 26th, 2022 at 9:21 pm
dust in a deserted doll shop saguaro shadows
February 27th, 2022 at 7:55 am
eyes follow
foot prints in this sand
dolls wander
February 27th, 2022 at 8:03 am
old thought; as its dust settles; a new breeze
_m
February 27th, 2022 at 1:40 pm
Life among the cacti
tall and dry, who reach for clouds,
sky, grasping after God
February 27th, 2022 at 4:39 pm
prickly elders
my childhood self
runs the gauntlet
March 6th, 2022 at 6:17 am
counting stars
these seconds of every life
a grin of sand
March 6th, 2022 at 4:55 pm
/// a grain of sand \