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
garden party
heartbeat racing
our eyes meet
_____
hostess greets us
sweet scent lingering
at shoulder height
_____
Stay inspired!
Singed flame
Hovering Destroyer
Innocent song of blossoms
purple haze the smoke dwindles into moonrise
evolution—
how similar we are
yet dissimilar
summer day
I make friends
with a stranger
stilled
against blurred lavender
on the horns of a mystery
beating furiously
to hover upright
o my heart
spring fling
unable to resist
the smell of purple
***
faster than
the speed of light
your identity
spring fling
unable to resist
the smell of purple
***
faster than
the speed of light
your identity
taking me back to childhood wonder a hummingbird moth
With a flash and a flicker
a hummingbird hovers
over summer
–Sylvia Forges-Ryan
(posted on her behalf)
shared wings
a slow shutter
captures the blur
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
flitting about the lavender this last day of September
snapshot—
in the blink of an eye
only the lavender
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.
lavender…
finding the soft spot
in his heart
lavender…
the gossamer scent
hovering in the air
proboscis…
the wishes and whorls
of a life line
steps in time's shadow
strides through histories follow
eyes nod to the past
__Good or bad of the past… both teach. _m
long-stemmed flowers
a hummingbird moth's
unfurling proboscis
'hummingbird hawk-moth'
my mouth could do with that tongue
for it to trip off
soft blur of
hovering colour
pollinates
hawk-moth
the eye of an unfurling
tongue
moth art
the Daliesque twirl of its tongue
midflight
purple patch attracts
bird doppelganger
good omen
—
fragrant bouquet
moth to
royal flame
overwhelming heat
from flower to flower
the moth’s wings
the hum of summer sunshine…
lavender drops dance
on the head of a pin
spring hummingbird
a haiku
in its beak
Mom’s lilac grove
a hummingbird and I
hum
trumpet honeysuckle
a hummingbird
chirps
morning coral bells
hummingbirds
commune
lavender breeze
a hawk-moth
fanning the fragrance
moth proboscis
a spiraling galaxy
of lavender
hawk-moth
just humming along
the lavender
lavender
grandma teaches me
to repel the boys
hawk-moth twittering between myself and my mask echoes
scent of lavender
summer flies by
in a blur
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
dusk moth
in dying light
that deep whir of wings
a hummingbird moth making the rounds flower baskets
lavender sachets—
leaving the last bush
for my friends
grandma's garden
long after she's gone
the scent of lavender
Seventy beats per second
my wings when I see you
my love
hawk-moth
humming through
the fragrance of flowers
menacing
my bird-like eye
as I get on with business
shapeshifter moon trails lavender through the gloaming
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)
alien spacecraft
our two
hearts
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
a hummingbird
in disguise
the hawk moth
unfurls
his not-a-tongue tongue
lit match
lavender
catches
mingling with the bee buzz the hawk moth’s hum
lavender spirals the moth’s proboscis
failing sight the color purple across the braille
gold wings song
such blossoms in flutter
a violet violin
__In each vision, that imagined sight may change. _m
as in the photo
dark garden bed
where we wait
for lavender to bloom
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
in spring the backyard growing bigger
midday sun
a hawk-moth homes in
on its shadow
lavender sky…
the scent of summers
past
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
Tinder feed
the hovering hawk-moth
swipes right
lavender haze
moth to moth
resuscitation
the curls what wind does to her hair
.
hum in the forest
a linchpin
uniting my being
.
the whirr of a hawk-moth lavender fan
a
sphinx
moth
hovering
autumnal
equinox
sphinx moth the dusk of autumnal equinox
mother's lavender
the curlicue signature
of her love
****
passion vine the uncoiling proboscis of her desire
zoomed out
the problem offers
a solution
lavender photos
pin humming hawk-moths in flight
unfettered from time
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)
the light and hairy
predators in my dreams…
hawk-moth
why purple is a forbidden colour dripping from lashes
not a fence
but a boundary
with blooms reaching out
such blooming boundries
enhance each walker's new sight
nature's Earth compass
__Jeffrey, your "blooms reaching out
moment
in a field of lavender
Bakhmut
wrought iron gate
something stirs
the scent of purple