Submissions to tinywords 22.2 — and a new writing prompt

photo of fishing boats at anchor, their reflections showing in the still water

tinywords 22.1 has now ended with Bryan Rickert’s haiku “departing summer”. The submission window for tinywords 22.2 will open on August 1st and remain open until the end of the month. Sending regular submissions to tinywords is a simple two-step process. Just check out our Guidelines and click on the Submissions Page from Aug. 1 through Aug. 31,  2022.  Please send us your small poems, haiga, or brief haibun to be considered for our next issue: tinywords 22.2.

To keep things lively while we work on the next issue, we present a new writing prompt: Fishing boats at anchor as seen from Harborview Park in Cape May, New Jersey. We hope their peaceful reflections inspire you to write a tiny poem or two in response. 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 in tinywords 22.2, due out in late September, 2022.

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

Be well,

The editors

96 Responses

  1. Judith Hishikawa Says:

    calm sea
    mirror image
    do i dive up or down?

  2. ingridbaluchi Says:

    at rest
    the silence
    of mastheads

  3. Alan Summers Says:

    sometimes
    we look another way
    two skies

    Alan Summers

  4. ingridbaluchi Says:

    …And we don't see the obvious?

  5. Alan Summers Says:

    Sometimes we look the other way, or another way, sometimes perhaps we don't see what we are looking at, so there's a number of possibliities I guess.

    kind regards,
    Alan

  6. ingridbaluchi Says:

    I worry that the powers that be really do not see, or, more likely, don't want to see the obvious.
    We see a beautiful photo, fishing boats at rest in a harbour, calm for now, but in readiness. There are allusions from a few poets responding to tinywords' photo prompt to fish being at peace, but not shouting out enough about how we are decimating the oceans with over-fishing and littering it with human junk.
    It was this aspect to which I was referring.

  7. Alan Summers Says:

    It's true that both fishing ports and fishing industry have been decimated, as has the fish population. Politics feels like a disease and corporate greed as a virus.

    Nothing is really ever silent, calm, or at peace is it? It's all pretty much smoke and mirrors, and maya. Something even more disastrous will be the only way we humans will wake up.

  8. Magyar Says:

    __Yours… your words painted such an image:

    politics
    disease of corporate greed
    viral haze

  9. Christopher Peys Says:

    tidal harbour
    a fisherman rushes
    to work

  10. ingridbaluchi Says:

    a harbor huddle
    of old hands—
    seafarers

  11. Alan Summers Says:

    into this ocean
    each and every red drop
    we kiss as if the last

    Alan Summers

  12. Seretta Martin Says:

    life reflections
    docked at Cape May-
    the vessel of Redemption

  13. ingridbaluchi Says:

    whispering hulls ripple the sky

  14. Marion Clarke Says:

    bathroom mirror . . .

    my twin brothers try to spot

    the slightest difference

  15. danielamisso Says:

    summer's end
    something more
    about him

    Daniela Misso

  16. Amada Burgard Says:

    Bouquet of boats
    Reflects Ourselves
    We all pick favorites

  17. Michael Feil Says:

    fishing trawlers reflect
    in a still harbor's bay
    fish stay out at sea

  18. Robert kingston Says:

    dock side
    all the clouds gathered
    in one spot

  19. Sam Bateman Says:

    slack water
    the motionless
    reflections
    of fishing boats

  20. buffysilver Says:

    mast's reflection…
    piercing an underwater
    mystery

  21. Ellen Girardeau Kempler Says:

    parallel water

    world—rigging hangs upside down

    mirror boats above

  22. Ellen Girardeau Kempler Says:

    parallel water
    world—rigging hangs upside down
    mirror boats above

  23. Olivier Schopfer Says:

    summer’s end

    an unmoored boat

    drifting out to sea

  24. Perry L. Powell Says:

    reflections
    the silence above the water
    the silence below

  25. Laurie Greer Says:

    setting sail
    on summer memories…
    ship in a bottle

  26. Linda Petrucelli Says:

    double vision
    the eye plays tricks
    summer flounder

  27. Lorin Ford Says:

    between sea and sky
    our usual afternoon
    snooze

  28. Sam Bateman Says:

    summer doldrums
    fishing boats float
    on their reflections

  29. Srini Says:

    at sea level conjoined skies

  30. Rosa M. Di Salvatore Says:

    boats . . .
    sweet memories come back
    to my mind

  31. Robert Kingston Says:

    restrained nets
    the scarlet sunset
    left on the dockside

  32. Bernadette Says:

    dust gathers
    underneath the bed
    through the years

  33. Bernadette Says:

    Sorry the above should read

    underneath the bed
    dust gathers
    through the years

  34. Helen Buckingham Says:

    harbour scene

    danced

    en pointe

  35. Laurie Greer Says:

    open sea the key of our shanty

  36. Magyar Says:

    some confused gulls scan
    choosing perfect shaped yard arms
    such claw grasp splashes

    __Oops! _m

  37. diannemoritz Says:

    boats moor
    on glassy sea
    summer respite

  38. Grace Galton Says:

    captain and crew
    batten down the hatches…
    storm warning

  39. Laurie Greer Says:

    double hull…
    dancing cheek to cheek
    past the midnight stars

  40. Maurice Nevile Says:

    rusty hull
    weathering these waves
    of grief

  41. Maurice Nevile Says:

    glass bay
    ten toes shatter
    the sky

  42. Stefanie Bucifal Says:

    rowing
    we are one
    with our reflection

  43. Stefanie Bucifal Says:

    Rorschach test
    reading the clouds
    in the water

  44. Kari Davidson Says:

    empty sky
    the silent reflection
    of fishing boats

  45. Joanne van Helvoort Says:

    reflection
    fishing boats anchored
    within themselves

  46. Jeffrey Ferrara Says:

    a frogman
    scraping barnacles
    barely ripples

  47. Jeffrey Ferrara Says:

    dead calm
    on the harbor
    sliced by a fin

  48. Grace Galton Says:

    dockside…
    a fisherman scrapes
    scales from his hand

  49. RobertaBeachJacobson Says:

    out at sea
    watching the climate
    change

    Roberta Beach Jacobson

  50. Marcie Wessels Says:

    rigging at rest sunlight stills the sea

  51. barrielevineblog Says:

    ocean pier—
    under the gull's dive
    a blue silence

    Barrie Levine

  52. Barrie Levine Says:

    safe harbor

    proper boat shoes

    de rigueur

    L3 should be italicized

    Barrie Levine

  53. Helen Buckingham Says:

    mermaid

    model sees

    a mirrored blue whale

  54. Michael Henry Lee Says:

    fishing village
    Sunday’s sermon on
    the loaves and fished

  55. Dafne Lopez Says:

    Get aboard this boat
    We will navigate the sun
    To find your own home.

  56. Jackie Chou Says:

    origami…
    my boat paper thin
    and without oars

  57. danielamisso Says:

    morning calm –
    the voiceless reflection
    of boats at anchor

  58. Magyar Says:

    negotiator
    serene at its full fleet wharf
    quiet terms afloat

    _m

  59. Magyar Says:

    with changing tides
    mooring lines bark and howl
    the gulls jump

  60. Helen Buckingham Says:

    blues and greys

    our mirrorverse

    much the same

  61. Helen Buckingham Says:

    there's

    a hole in our bucket

    summer's end

  62. Stephen J. DeGuire Says:

    fishing boat
    pregnant with catch…
    capsizes

    Stephen J. DeGuire

  63. ingridbaluchi Says:

    depicting the scene
    an artist
    upends his canvas

  64. Marion Clarke Says:

    wharfside . . .

    through a puff of pipe smoke

    he names his price

  65. Richard Jordan Says:

    beyond the anchored boat
    and its reflection
    fading mackerel sky

  66. petro c. k. Says:

    a rorschach test
    of my sea legs
    I step into the sky

  67. Marion Clarke Says:

    off-kilter storm warning

  68. ingridbaluchi Says:

    lull
    that quiet time
    we all take shelter

  69. Elisa Theriana Says:

    overcast
    we go deeper
    foraging sky

  70. Jeffrey Ferrara Says:

    through the mirror
    another world
    moves below

  71. d. f. tweney Says:

    before the journey
    the stillness
    of reflection

    (submitted on behalf of Claudette Russell)

  72. joshturtle Says:

    blue horizons …
    my anchor to you
    withdrawn

    – submitted by j rap

  73. Srini Says:

    clouds and boats sharing the sea

  74. Magyar Says:

    __ Nature's mirror, paints this nature of nature, nature's brush.
    _m

  75. Sam Bateman Says:

    between seasons
    fishermen mend
    nets with dreams

  76. Magyar Says:

    passing summer days
    dreams dance to brightened colors
    soon the fall of snow

    __Nifty, Sam!
    __My thoughrt here… as our season quickly changes toward the white of snow; steps onward. _m

  77. Sam Bateman Says:

    harbor reflections—
    fishermen mull over
    the old superstitions

  78. angiolainglese Says:

    trees and silence
    the angry cough
    of the fisherman

  79. Marion Clarke Says:

    not a breath silence of the gulls

  80. ingridbaluchi Says:

    somewhere
    a walrus basks
    in forever peace

  81. Srini Says:

    ocean politics…
    clouds start gathering
    in the blue sky

  82. Ryland Shengzhi Li Says:

    passing birds
    the blue catamaran
    no longer ours

  83. Helen Buckingham Says:

    fishing to extinction catch-22

  84. Gary Hittmeyer Says:

    idle masts
    the fished out seas
    of generations

  85. Engin Glez Says:

    lockdown the stickiness of reflection

    ***

    clear water
    still no news of
    the missing fishermen

  86. Engin Gulez Says:

    I guess the site does not recognize the Turkish character in my name: It should be read as "Engin Gülez".

  87. Irena Szewczyk Says:

    autumn equinox
    wrapped in blue
    our microcosmos

  88. Sam Bateman Says:

    harbor reflections—
    fishermen make up
    new superstitions

    (an updated version)

  89. Magyar Says:

    fisher-person's whip
    flies at the end of that wind
    fishing rods flash flair

    Sam…
    __ Your feelings as you had so well written over a week ago: "between seasons – fishermen mend their nets – with dreams"… . Then, we must all be in 'Lifes Lake'… as a fisher-person mending our own nets. _m

  90. Tracy Davidson Says:

    another fine catch
    I fish discarded nets
    from the water

  91. Debbie Strange Says:

    scarred dock
    masts carve our initials
    into the water

  92. Helen Buckingham Says:

    fishing
    for a living
    catch-22

    (director's cut)

  93. Barbara Kaufmann Says:

    fishing trip
    the time the motor conked out
    and daddy cursed

  94. Magyar Says:

    brains create the breeze
    as dust hides such deeper thought
    found ideas win

    __ So often… thoughts are lost in their own dust… perhaps, the "brain's breeze" will re-discover them._m

  95. martin1223 Says:

    rising net
    the silence of these gasps
    in the dusk

  96. martin1223 Says:

    lit fish-stall
    open mouths darken
    the night

    *Updated version as suggested by marlene mountain.
    tinywords ISSUE 10.3 | 27 OCTOBER 2010

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