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
so many words
opening my mind
letting my soul take flight
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
braiding
a beginner’s mind
banned books
a book unfolds
into leaves of grass
deckle edges
Alan Summers
chapter 1
my armchair
sprouts wings
seeing
in the eyes of a child
the wonder
seeing …
in the eyes of a child
the wonder
vacation begins
taking flight in a world
of books
with each book
a new chapter
of my life begins
recalling from preschool
those red cardboard bricks
we broke through
into the woods leaving with a box red with words
Alan Summers
a book unfolds
into leaves of grass
its deckle edges
Alan Summers
opening a book opening my mind
opening the book…
the flutter
of new butterfly wings
scent of a book
what bound me
to home
*
late November
we skip across puddles
of library light
book collection
those that keep me grounded
those that set me free
scramble of butterflies—
the words fly from
her imagination
page-turner a work of imagination takes flight
red brick school
we covered our books
with brown paper
borrowed book
inside unfinished
love letter
her life bookended
by stories’ transcendence
Miss Lynne’s last read aloud
in between a book’s words
the scent of a sunlit meadow
folding mini leggings grand-niece’s first year
Books as butterflies…
offering the great promise of change.
dice scatter
hair strays from its braid
entropy encroaches
well-chosen words
set the garden back in order
stacking library books . . .
the geometry
of imagination
flower mural
on sundown warm bricks
– paint made of muddle
bound for the sky
this dance of wonder
bibliophile wings
illustrated book –
exploring the universe
and its silences
a new book…
i let myself go
Aladdin on my side
the soft voice
of the children’s librarian
where the wild things are
the flutter of leaves
a library in every corner
of her mind
letting them loose
for others to lose themselves in
she donates
her childhood books
to the charity shop
paper trails
a journey into
the world
led by contrails
of ideas
books in the wind
ruffling their wings
childhood evening –
on the bedside table a book
of mythology
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]
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]
and from each book
another dream
takes flight
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
a young adult
watching her turn
her own pages
Earth baked
into sky,
lifting words
from life.
hope
my name
given wings
winter clouds
still next to his chair
a pile of books
after …ever after
under the covers
her flashlight glowing
past her bedtime
my daughter and i
still in Neverland
a tesseract
through space-time
the open book
look up, little girl
the pages are being rewritten.
look up
blank canvas
the artist draws
a crowd
Visiting a soiree of books
turns her turnpike journey
into an enchanting reverie
leaf bookmark
an ant’s journey
after each flip
butterfly stickers
my students begin
to spread their wings
birds
flying across
I read stories
horizons
expanding my world
of letters