Submissions to tinywords 24.2 — and a new writing prompt

Lopi LaRoe’s mural, Beginner’s Mind, in Rutland, VT. Photo taken by Peter Newton.

tinywords 24.1 has now ended with Maeve O’Sullivan’s haiku “I shake the sand.” We will be on pause until the next issue, 24.2, begins at the end of September.

The submission window for tinywords 24.2 opens on August 1st and closes on August 31, 2024. Sending regular submissions to tinywords is a simple two-step process. Just check out our guidelines and send in your work using the form on the Submissions Page from Aug. 1 through Aug. 31, 2024. Please send us your haiku, tanka, small poems, haiga, or brief haibun to be considered for our next issue: tinywords 24.2.

To keep things interesting while we work on the next issue, we present a new writing prompt: A photo image of a mural In Rutland, Vermont, by Lopi LaRoes titled “Beginner’s Mind.” Many of us with a passion for words and reading remember the books that sparked our creativity in childhood and those that influenced us later. Books that still circle around in our thoughts and continue to inspire us. We hope the whimsical flying books of this mural and its wonderstruck young girl will inspire you to write a tiny poem or 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 24.2, due out in late September, 2024.

Thanks again for dropping by. We look forward to reading what you have to say.

Be well,

The editors

53 Responses

  1. Claudette Russell Says:

    so many words
    opening my mind
    letting my soul take flight

  2. Angele Ellis Says:

    AFTER DICKINSON

    A girl imposes her fresh-faced contours on a red brick wall, eyes turned upward rather than inward, cap brim shadowing a window with unreadable panes. Her braids are ropes to belay a new Rapunzel, freeing herself from the castle of sub-parental expectations. Enchanted books surround her, pages levitating to release geometries of dreams.

    frigates take to the skies
    as a human soul
    prances

  3. Marilyn Ashbaugh Says:

    braiding
    a beginner’s mind
    banned books

  4. Alan Summers Says:

    a book unfolds
    into leaves of grass
    deckle edges

    Alan Summers

  5. Helen Ogden Says:

    chapter 1
    my armchair
    sprouts wings

  6. Kala Ramesh Says:

    seeing
    in the eyes of a child
    the wonder

  7. Kala Ramesh Says:

    seeing …
    in the eyes of a child
    the wonder

  8. Dennise Aiello Says:

    vacation begins
    taking flight in a world
    of books

  9. Claudette Russell Says:

    with each book
    a new chapter
    of my life begins

  10. Jeffrey Ferrara Says:

    recalling from preschool

    those red cardboard bricks

    we broke through

  11. Alan Summers Says:

    into the woods leaving with a box red with words

    Alan Summers

  12. Alan Summers Says:

    a book unfolds
    into leaves of grass
    its deckle edges

    Alan Summers

  13. Sam Bateman Says:

    opening a book opening my mind

  14. Laurie Greer Says:

    opening the book…
    the flutter
    of new butterfly wings

  15. Laurie Greer Says:

    scent of a book
    what bound me
    to home
    *

  16. Marion Clarke Says:

    late November
    we skip across puddles
    of library light

  17. Claudette Russell Says:

    book collection
    those that keep me grounded
    those that set me free

  18. Ellis Clay Says:

    scramble of butterflies—
    the words fly from
    her imagination

  19. Sam Bateman Says:

    page-turner a work of imagination takes flight

  20. Jeffrey Ferrara Says:

    red brick school

    we covered our books

    with brown paper

  21. Wieslaw Karlinski Says:

    borrowed book
    inside unfinished
    love letter

  22. Ellen Craft Says:

    her life bookended
    by stories’ transcendence
    Miss Lynne’s last read aloud

  23. martin gottlieb cohen Says:

    in between a book’s words
    the scent of a sunlit meadow

  24. Bernadette O'Reilly Says:

    folding mini leggings grand-niece’s first year

  25. Alannah Radburn Says:

    Books as butterflies…
    offering the great promise of change.

  26. Cynthia Bale Says:

    dice scatter
    hair strays from its braid
    entropy encroaches
    well-chosen words
    set the garden back in order

  27. Julie Bloss Kelsey Says:

    stacking library books . . .
    the geometry
    of imagination

  28. darius s. Says:

    flower mural
    on sundown warm bricks
    – paint made of muddle

  29. Joanna Ashwell Says:

    bound for the sky
    this dance of wonder
    bibliophile wings

  30. Nicoletta Ignatti Says:

    illustrated book –
    exploring the universe
    and its silences

  31. Nicoletta Ignatti Says:

    a new book…
    i let myself go
    Aladdin on my side

  32. Barrie Levine Says:

    the soft voice
    of the children’s librarian
    where the wild things are

  33. Tracy Davidson Says:

    the flutter of leaves
    a library in every corner
    of her mind

  34. Tracy Davidson Says:

    letting them loose
    for others to lose themselves in
    she donates
    her childhood books
    to the charity shop

  35. Jahnavi Gogoi Says:

    paper trails
    a journey into
    the world
    led by contrails
    of ideas

  36. F. J. Bergmann Says:

    books in the wind
    ruffling their wings

  37. Angiola Inglese Says:

    childhood evening –
    on the bedside table a book
    of mythology

  38. Monica Kakkar Says:

    without an escape
    in red vermilion summer
    Dewey decimals

    All summer season word, kigo 季語: red vermilion summer, shuuka 朱夏 (しゅか)
    [World Kigo Database]

  39. Monica Kakkar Says:

    bountiful harvest . . .
    forever for their mothers
    classmates who have cared

    Mid-autumn season word, kigo 季語: bountiful harvest, hoonen 豊年 (ほうねん)
    [World Kigo Database]

  40. Claudette Says:

    and from each book
    another dream
    takes flight

  41. Kim Klugh Says:

    the gift of a book
    ripping off the cover…
    of her imagination

    no longer weighed down—
    taking flight
    with the wonder of words

    the freedom to read…
    giving rise
    to the mind’s emancipation

  42. Maurice Nevile Says:

    a young adult
    watching her turn
    her own pages

  43. Ping Yi Yee Says:

    Earth baked
    into sky,
    lifting words
    from life.

  44. Akua Lezli Hope Says:

    hope
    my name
    given wings

  45. joanne van helvoort Says:

    winter clouds
    still next to his chair
    a pile of books

  46. Maurice Nevile Says:

    after …ever after
    under the covers
    her flashlight glowing

  47. Billy T. Antonio Says:

    past her bedtime
    my daughter and i
    still in Neverland

  48. Meredith Ackroyd Says:

    a tesseract
    through space-time
    the open book

  49. Jan Hassmann Says:

    look up, little girl
    the pages are being rewritten.
    look up

  50. Rich Schilling Says:

    blank canvas
    the artist draws
    a crowd

  51. Nuzhat Anwar Says:

    Visiting a soiree of books
    turns her turnpike journey
    into an enchanting reverie

  52. Nitu Yumnam Says:

    leaf bookmark
    an ant’s journey
    after each flip

  53. Nitu Yumnam Says:

    butterfly stickers
    my students begin
    to spread their wings

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