Submissions to tinywords 25.1 — and a new writing prompt

Black and white photo of a black, leafless tree in silhouette against a field of white snow. A single swing hangs from one of the branches.

It’s that time again. tinywords 24.2 has now ended with Elisa Theriana’s “until we meet again”.  We will be on pause until the next issue, 25.1, begins late in March.

The submission window for tinywords 25.1 opens on February 1st and closes on February 28th, 2025. 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 after the window opens on February 1st.  Please send us your haiku, tanka, small poems, haiga, or brief haibun to be considered for our next issue: tinywords 25.1. Our 25th year!

To keep things interesting while we work on the next issue, we present a new writing prompt: A starkly beautiful photo of a winter scene in black and white that seems to speak of solitude, memory and perhaps longing. What do you see? We hope the image will inspire you to write a tiny poem or two. Please 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 25.1, due out in late March, 2025.

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

 

Be well,

The editors

 

74 Responses

  1. LYNNE REES Says:

    that’s such a beautiful photo <3

    ~
    deep winter
    my memories swing
    between light and dark

    ~

  2. martin gottlieb cohen Says:

    memory the silence of a first snow

  3. Cendrine Marrouat Says:

    Hello there!

    Here is my haiku:

    “Winter light
    twenty-five years ago
    our swing.”

    Cendrine Marrouat

  4. Claudette Russell Says:

    black and white photo
    setting colorful memories
    in motion

  5. Claudette Russell Says:

    a motionless swing
    above the untouched snow
    waiting for the joy of children

  6. Catherine Donnelly Says:

    Like the memories
    from my childhood, blanketed
    over with snowfall

  7. Jacquie Says:

    winter silence
    that place I go
    to find myself

  8. Catherine Donnelly Says:

    Memories frozen
    so deep that the impending
    thaw cannot unearth

  9. Olivier Schopfer Says:

    those days
    when we had wings
    school swing

  10. Nancy Rapp Says:

    the swing
    waits for the baby
    winter will thaw
    into spring

  11. Laurie Greer Says:

    winter blues swing low

  12. Eavonka Ettinger Says:

    chiaroscuro
    what lies beneath
    the shadows

  13. Ray Caligiuri Says:

    heartland solitude abandoned

  14. Nan Bagwell Payne Says:

    late winter
    the swing where she was
    abducted

  15. AJ Johnson Says:

    virgin snow
    untouched by
    angel wings

  16. Mark Teaford Says:

    waiting
    to take the first step
    into treatment

    riding the second swing
    a ghost
    leaves no footprints

    just enough
    snow
    to start anew

  17. Alvin B. Cruz Says:

    the shadow
    of an empty swing
    winter deepens

  18. Debbie Feller Says:

    empty swing
    above snow drifts
    pushed by the wind

  19. Laura Miller Says:

    childhood—
    pure as snow
    just as fleeting

  20. Catherine Donnelly Says:

    Let me do that one over again:

    Frozen memories
    so deep, the impending thaw
    cannot unearth them

  21. Ravi Kiran Says:

    frozen silence
    thoughts sway towards
    our time together

  22. Wieslaw Karlinski Says:

    first snow
    completely different
    scent of porridge

  23. Stephen Iles Says:

    Still cold silent
    but the swing moves both ways…

  24. Claudette Russell Says:

    light and shadow
    the memories
    that define us

  25. Angele Ellis Says:

    caught in the branches
    of memory
    one shadow

  26. Sam Bateman Says:

    that winter when
    everything stopped
    deepening snow

  27. María Julia Guzmán Says:

    deep winter –
    childhood returns
    in the shadow of the swing

  28. María Julia Guzmán Says:

    the silent presence
    of the shadows…
    memories of that far away winter

  29. Alan Summers Says:

    pencil shavings
    the shadows from a sketch
    as snow at night

    Alan Summers

  30. Joanna Ashwell Says:

    between
    the arc of snow
    a dreamer’s flight

  31. Rich Schilling Says:

    winterlight
    at the window
    toddler’s handprints

    ***

    the stillness
    between songbirds
    winter light

    ***

    passing my days
    in your absence
    winter light

    ***

    separating wants
    from needs
    winter light

  32. Wieslaw Karlinski Says:

    walk and grandson
    discovering anew
    the taste of snow

  33. Grace De Sousa Says:

    snow worn in stretch marks…

  34. Michael Henry Lee Says:

    empty arms
    all that time
    must take away

  35. Thom Norgang Says:

    sharing the cold
    each day our shadows
    come and go

  36. Alan Summers Says:

    fleeting motes
    each one a hidden colour
    that slows a heart

    Alan Summers

  37. Dru Philippou Says:

    empty swing
    in each sway
    the loneliness

  38. AJ Johnson Says:

    another winter
    the old swing tree
    sleeps through it all

  39. Alan Summers Says:

    roots go both ways
    whiskey with a single block
    of ice and regret

    Alan Summers

  40. Terry Huff Says:

    swing low
    sweet winter snow
    shadow me home

  41. Dru Philippou Says:

    holding hands
    I lean
    into your silence

    Line 2 is indented.

  42. Dru Philippou Says:

    falling snow
    the tinkling
    of a wind chime

  43. Jeffrey Ferrara Says:

    our earliest playground

    pristine

    in the snowpack

  44. Jeffrey Ferrara Says:

    the pendulum awaits

    a force to set it

    to swinging

  45. Fatma Zohra Habis Says:

    winter hibernation—
    the silent creak of a swing
    in untouched snowfall

  46. Dru Philippou Says:

    deep snow . . .
    bancha tea leaves
    slowly unfurling

  47. Mark Forrester Says:

    geese in flight
    the cold sound
    of an empty swing

  48. corine timmer Says:

    untouched snow—
    creating my own path

  49. corine timmer Says:

    menopause . . .
    trying to reconnect with
    the little girl in me

  50. Barbara Feehrer Says:

    empty playground
    frozen memories
    shadowed on snow

  51. Sabra Fenske Says:

    my childhood
    and my now
    so many seasons
    in between

  52. James Westbrooks Says:

    Footsteps and laughter
    Hidden away and waiting
    Beneath the drifting cold

  53. Dru Philippou Says:

    reading Dōgen
    snow falling
    on snow

    Line 2 is indented.

  54. Sherry Weaver Smith Says:

    years later
    she still brushes the snow
    from the swing

  55. Dru Philippou Says:

    deep snow
    bancha leaves
    slowly unfurling

  56. Claudette Russell Says:

    first snow
    daring myself
    to be a kid again

  57. Claudette Russell Says:

    empty swing
    the silence
    of loneliness

  58. Cynthia Bale Says:

    snow raises the ground
    no room for swinging legs
    yet

  59. Tracy Davidson Says:

    second childhood
    sometimes I still swing
    when no-one’s looking

  60. Tracy Davidson Says:

    leaving no footprints
    the lonely spirit
    of the child who fell

  61. Richard West Says:

    winter trees –
    their only leaves
    a flock of finches

  62. Katrina Shepherd Says:

    flying towards
    the swing
    untouched snow

  63. Alan Summers Says:

    alabaster white
    just as the sun sets up
    another day’s angel

    Alan Summers

  64. Alan Summers Says:

    the White Album
    another serial number
    filed away

    Alan Summers

    NOTE:
    The Beatles (album)
    commonly referred to as the White Album, is the ninth studio album and only double album released in November 1968.

    It featured a plain white sleeve:
    Each copy first featured a unique stamped serial number:

    “to create the ironic situation of a numbered edition of something like five million copies”

    Just like snowflake, each one is unique.

  65. Rick Runner Says:

    loneliness swings
    under gray clouds –
    no sky

  66. Rich Schilling Says:

    slowing down
    the pace of life
    snow day

  67. Ellen Craft Says:

    a childhood, crystallized:
    swinging high
    with soft landings

  68. Patricia Hope Says:

    I see memories of my youth
    in the swing’s shadow

    ***

    A snow-covered swing awaits
    eager hands to grab it
    and climb onboard

    ***

    All a snow-covered swing
    can do is sleep until Spring

  69. Peter Newton Says:

    dead of winter
    the year’s ups
    and downs

  70. Barbara Kaufmann Says:

    incoming fog
    so much that was clear
    is lost

  71. M. Benjamin Thorne Says:

    the swing misses
    the laughter that rode it as
    the tree its long-buried seed

  72. Ron Scully Says:

    the swing
    after long silence
    shadows on the snow

  73. Ingrid Baluchi Says:

    Silence in the Snowy Fields
    for now the light burden
    of snow on the swing

    Tribute to Robert Bly

  74. Melissa Dennison Says:

    swinging
    to the rhythm
    and blues

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