Submissions to tinywords 23.1 — and a new writing prompt
tinywords 22.2 has now ended with Kerry J. Heckman’s “telescope images”. The submission window for tinywords 23.1 will open on February 1st and remain open until the end of the month. Sending regular submissions to tinywords is a simple two-step process:
1 – Just check out our guidelines at https://tinywords.com/about/ and then
2 – Click on this link to submit your work: https://tinywords.com/submit/
We’ll accept submissions from Feb. 1 through Feb. 28, 2023. Please send us your small poems, haiga, or brief haibun to be considered for our next issue, which will start in March or April.
While we work on the next issue, how about a new writing prompt?
Our photo prompt image, above, is an award-winning close-up by Thorsten Denhard. Take a look at this alien-like being: the macroglossom stellatarum in flight near lavender. Better known as a hummingbird hawk-moth, this insect’s movement perfectly echoes the flight of an actual hummingbird. A fascinating and cool little creature that really holds your attention when you see one hovering like it does. A veritable poem in and of itself. We hope it inspires you to create one of your own. Or maybe two. Be sure to share them 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 at the start of tinywords 23.1, due out in late March, 2023.
Thanks again for dropping by. And, as always, good writing.
Be well,
The Editors
February 1st, 2023 at 8:26 am
garden party
heartbeat racing
our eyes meet
_____
hostess greets us
sweet scent lingering
at shoulder height
_____
Stay inspired!
February 1st, 2023 at 9:34 am
Singed flame
Hovering Destroyer
Innocent song of blossoms
February 1st, 2023 at 9:36 am
purple haze the smoke dwindles into moonrise
February 1st, 2023 at 9:37 am
evolution—
how similar we are
yet dissimilar
summer day
I make friends
with a stranger
February 1st, 2023 at 9:48 am
stilled
against blurred lavender
on the horns of a mystery
beating furiously
to hover upright
o my heart
February 1st, 2023 at 12:52 pm
spring fling
unable to resist
the smell of purple
***
faster than
the speed of light
your identity
February 1st, 2023 at 1:01 pm
spring fling
unable to resist
the smell of purple
***
faster than
the speed of light
your identity
February 1st, 2023 at 2:52 pm
taking me back to childhood wonder a hummingbird moth
February 1st, 2023 at 5:55 pm
With a flash and a flicker
a hummingbird hovers
over summer
–Sylvia Forges-Ryan
(posted on her behalf)
February 1st, 2023 at 6:18 pm
shared wings
a slow shutter
captures the blur
February 1st, 2023 at 7:54 pm
violet dawn
you hover the waters
in my heart
—-
a flicker of yearning
for my lonesome hours
who can tell apart
these tears
from the dew
February 1st, 2023 at 10:52 pm
flitting about the lavender this last day of September
February 1st, 2023 at 10:52 pm
snapshot—
in the blink of an eye
only the lavender
February 1st, 2023 at 11:28 pm
Summer Songs
Tiptoeing among
lavender and alyssum
Bees hum summer songs.
Fellow pollinator
Hummingbird impersonator,
Hawk Moth
Hovers among scents of summer
Buzzing its own song.
February 2nd, 2023 at 6:39 am
lavender…
finding the soft spot
in his heart
February 2nd, 2023 at 9:11 am
lavender…
the gossamer scent
hovering in the air
February 2nd, 2023 at 9:12 am
proboscis…
the wishes and whorls
of a life line
February 2nd, 2023 at 1:16 pm
steps in time's shadow
strides through histories follow
eyes nod to the past
__Good or bad of the past… both teach. _m
February 2nd, 2023 at 2:59 pm
long-stemmed flowers
a hummingbird moth's
unfurling proboscis
February 2nd, 2023 at 4:02 pm
'hummingbird hawk-moth'
my mouth could do with that tongue
for it to trip off
February 2nd, 2023 at 4:03 pm
soft blur of
hovering colour
pollinates
February 2nd, 2023 at 4:48 pm
hawk-moth
the eye of an unfurling
tongue
February 2nd, 2023 at 5:06 pm
moth art
the Daliesque twirl of its tongue
midflight
February 3rd, 2023 at 5:41 am
purple patch attracts
bird doppelganger
good omen
—
fragrant bouquet
moth to
royal flame
February 3rd, 2023 at 8:10 am
overwhelming heat
from flower to flower
the moth’s wings
February 3rd, 2023 at 8:39 am
the hum of summer sunshine…
lavender drops dance
on the head of a pin
February 3rd, 2023 at 2:56 pm
spring hummingbird
a haiku
in its beak
February 3rd, 2023 at 3:05 pm
Mom’s lilac grove
a hummingbird and I
hum
February 3rd, 2023 at 3:49 pm
trumpet honeysuckle
a hummingbird
chirps
February 3rd, 2023 at 4:08 pm
morning coral bells
hummingbirds
commune
February 3rd, 2023 at 4:20 pm
lavender breeze
a hawk-moth
fanning the fragrance
February 3rd, 2023 at 6:16 pm
moth proboscis
a spiraling galaxy
of lavender
hawk-moth
just humming along
the lavender
February 3rd, 2023 at 11:45 pm
lavender
grandma teaches me
to repel the boys
February 4th, 2023 at 11:52 am
hawk-moth twittering between myself and my mask echoes
February 4th, 2023 at 1:25 pm
scent of lavender
summer flies by
in a blur
February 4th, 2023 at 9:09 pm
sweetness the whir of burning wings
—
humming
hawk
bird
moth
what it's about
—
icarus the urge to pollinate
—
hawk moth
the scent of sunlight
in lavender
February 5th, 2023 at 11:03 am
dusk moth
in dying light
that deep whir of wings
February 5th, 2023 at 12:05 pm
a hummingbird moth making the rounds flower baskets
February 6th, 2023 at 3:12 am
lavender sachets—
leaving the last bush
for my friends
February 6th, 2023 at 7:02 am
grandma's garden
long after she's gone
the scent of lavender
February 6th, 2023 at 11:06 am
Seventy beats per second
my wings when I see you
my love
February 6th, 2023 at 11:26 am
hawk-moth
humming through
the fragrance of flowers
February 6th, 2023 at 12:41 pm
menacing
my bird-like eye
as I get on with business
February 6th, 2023 at 3:31 pm
shapeshifter moon trails lavender through the gloaming
February 6th, 2023 at 5:17 pm
lavender blossoms
a hummingbird hawk-moth
uncurls its tongue
***
star-crossed lovers
lavender blossom meets
hummingbird hawk-moth
***
fall twilight a flash mob of hummingbird moths
(this last one is based on the hummingbird moths where I live)
February 6th, 2023 at 8:52 pm
alien spacecraft
our two
hearts
February 7th, 2023 at 6:27 am
paths across the bay
each foot step writes our name
tides erase errors
__Nature should never be set aside; that surge of tides… always teaches and honors civility. _m
February 8th, 2023 at 6:44 am
a hummingbird
in disguise
the hawk moth
unfurls
his not-a-tongue tongue
February 8th, 2023 at 11:53 am
lit match
lavender
catches
February 9th, 2023 at 5:39 pm
mingling with the bee buzz the hawk moth’s hum
February 9th, 2023 at 6:07 pm
lavender spirals the moth’s proboscis
February 10th, 2023 at 5:12 am
failing sight the color purple across the braille
February 10th, 2023 at 7:05 am
gold wings song
such blossoms in flutter
a violet violin
__In each vision, that imagined sight may change. _m
February 14th, 2023 at 2:06 pm
as in the photo
February 10th, 2023 at 9:45 am
dark garden bed
where we wait
for lavender to bloom
February 11th, 2023 at 10:54 am
flickers of summer hum those early years
—
summers hovering a pause in hostilities
—
far from languid moth googling the lavandula
—
Provence awaiting another van Gogh
February 14th, 2023 at 6:07 am
in spring the backyard growing bigger
February 14th, 2023 at 8:38 pm
midday sun
a hawk-moth homes in
on its shadow
February 17th, 2023 at 9:08 am
lavender sky…
the scent of summers
past
February 17th, 2023 at 12:43 pm
the blur of a hawk-moth
humming among
notes of lavender
***
the hum of the hawk-moth
probing the notes
of lavender
***
hummingbird hawk-moth
I do a double take
in the blur of lavender
February 18th, 2023 at 5:46 pm
Tinder feed
the hovering hawk-moth
swipes right
February 19th, 2023 at 9:21 am
lavender haze
moth to moth
resuscitation
February 20th, 2023 at 1:14 pm
the curls what wind does to her hair
February 20th, 2023 at 1:27 pm
.
hum in the forest
a linchpin
uniting my being
.
February 21st, 2023 at 6:13 am
the whirr of a hawk-moth lavender fan
February 21st, 2023 at 9:38 am
a
sphinx
moth
hovering
autumnal
equinox
February 21st, 2023 at 10:01 am
sphinx moth the dusk of autumnal equinox
February 21st, 2023 at 11:00 am
mother's lavender
the curlicue signature
of her love
****
passion vine the uncoiling proboscis of her desire
February 22nd, 2023 at 6:55 am
zoomed out
the problem offers
a solution
February 23rd, 2023 at 12:45 pm
lavender photos
pin humming hawk-moths in flight
unfettered from time
February 23rd, 2023 at 12:55 pm
lavender bouquet
nerves humming before the date
a hawk-moth in flight
(sorry for the double post. Should've just included this in my first post)
February 24th, 2023 at 11:49 am
the light and hairy
predators in my dreams…
hawk-moth
February 25th, 2023 at 2:06 am
why purple is a forbidden colour dripping from lashes
February 28th, 2023 at 2:39 pm
not a fence
but a boundary
with blooms reaching out
March 2nd, 2023 at 8:51 am
such blooming boundries
enhance each walker's new sight
nature's Earth compass
__Jeffrey, your "blooms reaching out
March 3rd, 2023 at 7:24 pm
moment
in a field of lavender
Bakhmut
March 15th, 2023 at 10:28 am
wrought iron gate
something stirs
the scent of purple
March 20th, 2023 at 9:00 am
[…] Congratulations to our writing prompt winners Sam Bateman, Helen Buckingham, Rich Schilling, and Alan Summers whose poems appear below. Once again final choices were difficult due to the abundance of good responses. We have a few more favorites than usual. But that’s a good thing. Please be sure to scroll through and enjoy all the poems offered in response to our hummingbird hawk moth prompt. […]