Our new background image for this issue is of a traditional torii gate near Kyoto, Japan. This striking image, by Jason Goh from Pixabay, is one similar to those that are often found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine. Also, the gate symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred. How cool is that?
We think the analogy is apt when it comes to the role of poetry in our everyday lives. What is a poem if not a transition or portal from the mundane to the spiritual? A kind of elevated view of things. So, have a seat. Relax. Over the next several months one poem per weekday will appear in these virtual pages. We hope you enjoy these offerings from TINYWORDS.
Congratulations to Ana Drobot and Alan Summers, who open the new issue with their winning poems inspired by our prompt image taken by Anthony Catalano of the sculpture Damascus Gate by Walter Dusenbery. .
Their poems are featured below. As always, many fine offerings make the archive well worth reading.
Thanks to TINYWORDS 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 23.2, and to the readers who return year after year, we again say thank you.
We wish you all the very best now and in the seasons ahead.
Be well,
The Editors
Prompt winners
old gate…
its only guardian
summer sky
— Ana Drobot
rusty gate the snail left long ago
— Alan Summers
I do love old, rusty gates! These haiku are lovely. Thank you for the poetic pause in my busy day!
These portals are made without nails. Wooden pegs are used. FYI
Hi Judith,
I know, I was using the photo prompt as inspiration though not about that gate itself.
I sometimes like to move around the prompt, and snails that can travel huge distances nudged my writing arm!
warm regards,
Alan
river bank/
the snail’s silver slime/
on my footprints /
red portal
curved, soaring
transcendence
Love both of these! It’s about looking up, and looking down
I’m smiling now.
Thank you for selecting my haiku! It was prompt-inspired but not about the actual gate in the photo. It just made me think of those snails who can move vast distances!
Big congrats to Ana with their wonderfully expansive haiku!
old gate…
its only guardian
summer sky
— Ana Drobot
warm regards,
Alan
the snail crosses into sacred time too.
Thank you and congratulations to both winners.
red portal –
heaven and earth
in the rice field …
Wonderful “old gate”
Lovely poems. Congratulations, Ana & Alan!
Cheers to the editors and all the poets who make this possible. Be well!