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
sand and dolls
the tequila bottles rattling
towards sunrise
Alan Summers
Hallelujah
the end of the road
is in sight
Adelaide B. Shaw
water break
saguaro giving us
the finger
saguaro noon
the road’s only shadow
dust devil
migrant crossing—
one saguaro leans
on another
woodpecker echo
in the elf owl nest
crumbling adobe
hovering kachinas…
saguaros give a lift
to the spirits
lightness
of the cobweb-
cactus leaf
the empty arms
of saguaros…
missing native women
growing discomfort . . .
what lies at the end
of the colonnade
.
reaching out
to something beyond …
"what's a heaven for?"
.
walking down
the empty streets of my dreams
saguaro cactus
******************************************
tire treads
the cacti keep
their own counsel
In her dust
Truth pricks
More than cacti
endless prayers
raised to wide open
blue skies
not dying
but pierced through –
saguaro moon
Standing so tall
In spite
Of it all.
lonely road
the difficult path I took
without you
Fantastic!
badlands…
echos of the lone ranger
on the radio
chatting to one another
across the path
friendly
arrogant
cacti
saguaros
embraced by the wisdom
of the desert mothers
old road
the saguaro recalls
the sound of water
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
arms upraised
in gestures of praise
saguaro rain
fleeting clouds
above humble supplicants
mighty saguaro
humble supplicants
beneath fleeting clouds
mighty saguaros
inch by inch
decade by decade
saguaro stretch skyward
marking the way
to elsewhere
cactus leaves,
counting and recounting
moons and days
alone
away from the world …
saguaro sky
doll shop tomorrow’s broken promise
Doll shop — an interesting take.
on a desert road
the sculptor revisits
his subject
—
learning perspective
i follow the road
to the vanishing point
Lined with cacti –
lonesome trail
to dreams
beyond
interpretations
stillness
ghost town
the road not taken
for a reason
ghost town
all the signs lead us
to lost
I thrive beneath your
eye, my saquaro roots
unseen, you will see
old road
stand
as stability
Should read:
old road
saguaros stand
as stability
early start
the tallest saguaro
pokes the moon
desert daybreak…
a seguaro points
at the day moon
as if Earth stretched her dry old bones saguaro
— Marietta McGregor
rock bottom the only way is up
barren land
in a time out of mind
stiffened figures
monsoon season
saguaros waiting
with open arms
cacti-lined street…
a rain cloud pays
a rare visit
a detour saguaro shadows stretching the truth
columns of saguaro
a road delineated
columns of saguaro
saguaro cacti
standing at attention –
a humbling welcome
arms raised –
thanksgiving
for little things
not withstanding
the hardships of life –
standing tall
dust devil touching the sky saguaro cacti
saguaro blossom our youngest still the tallest
an owl nestled in a saguaro boot many moons
desert energy
out here the only pipelines
are the cactus
wired posts
within these desert cacti
the new old
dry heat shrinking the pleated folds of saguaros
hungover dawn
a cowboy hits
the lonesome trail
dirt road patrol on the side of overkill
(posted on behalf of Helen Buckingham)
travelling show hall of mirrors
(posted on behalf of Helen Buckingham)
troops on standby
time slows while they wait
for the signal to go
(posted on behalf of Helen Buckingham)
aging saguaros
still guarding
the desert's secrets
(posted on behalf of Claudette Russell)
these desert flowers
grown from thoughts of deepest eyes
within feeling minds
lifting the sky
high over Arizona
saguaro arms
(in "Lifting the Sky" 2013, ed. by Scott Wiggerman)
dusty road
through saguaro
so alone
I think I will visit
The doll maker on the left
It’s just off the path
__ Often, the values of life are… in your words Linda… "just offf the path".
Nice, parallel! _m
take up their cross
backpacking in cold and heat―
the Way of St James
on the trail
the water carriers
anchored
refugee convoy
at the end of the road
Orion
one road to sunset
the sky
filled with trails
Poppy Day
a legion of shadows
on Via Appia
war headlines…
the heavens trembling
on Atlas' shoulders
earworm
crossing my path . . .
Spaghetti Western
sudden shower . . .
the cowboy
caught short
empty valley echo of the dolls
accompanied
by a soundtrack…
desert wind
nothing but dust . . .
I take a chance on the road
of loneliness
eighty matters
as I step forward
sunrise
family reunion
the whole gang lines up
to greet me
beckons
the golden path…
raising arms
Thanksgiving dinner
another friendly battle
of the wishbone
rocks roll
ground to smoothness
Soft to my touch
the end of the line of saguaro wave goodbye
now here the road to nowhere
die hard
old cowboy
one hand on hip
out in the sticks
yet even here the need
for a linesman
nature's barbs
we're not the only ones
to erect deterrents
(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
up in arms
the buffet line
out of shrimp
(posted on behalf of Lorraine A Padden M.A. )
Love it.
Saguro Catus
Guardians of the desert
Waiting visitors
doll shop
saguaros guard
a lost dream
the geezer smiles
still coloring outside lines…
abandoned brothel
Philip Whitley
dust in a deserted doll shop saguaro shadows
eyes follow
foot prints in this sand
dolls wander
old thought; as its dust settles; a new breeze
_m
Life among the cacti
tall and dry, who reach for clouds,
sky, grasping after God
prickly elders
my childhood self
runs the gauntlet
counting stars
these seconds of every life
a grin of sand
/// a grain of sand \