Free Verse Revolution · Publication · Writing

Coming 25th September

extraordinarysunshineweaver7 Comments

Featuring 54 fantastic creators and writers, Issue III: hestia (hearth & home) will be released on Saturday, 25th September. The issue will be free …

Coming 25th September

I have two poems in this upcoming issue of Free Verse Revolution: A literary magazine. The poems are from my as yet unpublished collection of memoir poems about me and my mother, who passed from Alzheimer’s in 2016. One poem is “Hestia for Hire”, which is about my last visit with my parents before my dad died and the deterioration of Mom’s health and behavior. The other poem is “Mermother: A Rogue Dream Poem” (after Melanie Figg). In a rogue dream poem, one dream interrupts another and the end of the poem shows the real outcome. I see my mother in one dream state on a ship and I am trying to protect her in a storm. In another dream she is a mermaid. I am her octopus friend. I also see us shopping and having fun in another dream. The outcome is my loss of her.

I hope you will enjoy the issue. The editor, Kristiana Reed announced the line up of contributors a few days ago. I am humbled to be among these writers. Thank you, Kristiana!

My collection of memoir poems I mentioned is out searching for a publisher! I submitted to some contests just to take a few risks. You saw another poem from this collection, “Cooking a Life with a Wire Spine”, which was published in Spillwords as a featured poem on their main page in August, and it was nominated for publication of the month. It didn’t win. Another poem from the collection will be published by Anti-Heroin Chic next month.

I owe a great deal to the Free Verse Revolution blog (now archived) and new literary magazine. Their positive response to my poetry has encouraged me to grow as a poet and aim high. This means writing my own poetry collection and finding success with other publishers. I am truly grateful.

Poet Weaver
Free Verse Revolution · Healing · Honors · Memoir · Podcasts · Poetry · Poetry: The Memoir of the Soul · Writing

Poet Weaver

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I am a poet weaver. Many of my poems are spiritual, for I love going within to excavate the bits of my soul that need reassembly into words. As a sunshine weaver, I’m also a collagist, assembling snippets of images into a new whole with deep meaning. Each collage is a poem.

My poetry weaves together the metaphysical, metaphorical, magical, and mystical around grief, loss, love, and forgiveness. I believe healing words are so needed at this time. It is empowering to read poetry aloud, so I also started a poetry podcast on Podbean called Poetry: The Memoir of the Soul. meelosmom.podbean.com

I have compiled a poetry collection called Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir, which is about me and my mother, who passed from complications related to Alzheimer’s in 2016. Our lives were woven together in amazing symmetry, like a collage, around our mother wounds, our near deaths, and losses that impacted our relationship. I am looking for a publisher for the book and am investing in entering some contests.

Meanwhile, I am submitting poems from it with some success. One poem, “Cooking a Life with a Wire Spine” was published as a featured work on Spillwords, and in August 2021, was nominated as Publication of the Month. Also, in September 2021, Free Verse Revolution: A literary magazine, published two other poems from my collection, “Hestia for Hire” and “Mermother: A Rogue Dream Poem”. Kristiana Reed, the editor of Free Verse Revolution: A literary magazine, kindly writes in an email, “The portrayal of a parent/child relationship in both pieces was incredibly raw and moving.”

It is humbling that my poetry is getting recognized in other ways. In the anthology Well-Versed 2021 (available on amazon.com), “Picasso Dreams Broken Glass” won Third-Place in Poetry and “From Your Son” received Honorary Mention.

I’m married and have two rescued male cats, Saga and Jasper. My husband Dierik is a musician of Bluegrass, Cajun, and Country music. He’s also a wonderful music teacher.

Catch me at…
Poetry Podcast: meelosmom.podbean.com
Facebook: Barbara Harris Leonhard
Twitter: @Barbara17609138
Instagram: @meelosmom123

Why Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver?

Weaver is Source, who connects all things.
Strings and threads are cloth woven for wear.
Sunshine is Source, who reaches out rays
Like fingers to heat and heal,
To create Spring, spiritual connection,
To nurture Gaia,
To create rain as food,
To dream life,
To forge love
And evolve Source.
Extraordinary is this mystery.
All extends from Source as fingers of light
To nourish and thrive,
And as night falls awake so do all
Return to Source.


Copyright © 2021 Barbara Harris Leonhard

Image: by Jessicajoh on Pixabay


Unless otherwise stated, all published works are the original works of the author and are copyrighted. Contents of the blog may be re-used either for personal or commercial purposes, in part or whole only with permission and the author duly acknowledged with links to the blog embedded.

An Honor
Honors · Memoir · Poem · Publication · Recognition/ Honor · Spillwords · Writing

An Honor

extraordinarysunshineweaver4 Comments

My poem Cooking a Life with a Wire Spine has been nominated for Publication of the Month at Spillwords Press. People can vote for the poem by clicking on the link. You may have to register for free to vote. Thank you!! 🙏🙏🙏

Update: My poem didn’t make Publication of the Month. Maybe another time! 🍾🍾🍾

https://spillwords.com/vote/
Free Verse Revolution · Publication

Issue III responses have been sent! — Free Verse Revolution:

extraordinarysunshineweaverLeave a comment
Issue III responses have been sent! — Free Verse Revolution:

I am so humbled and honored to have two poems included in this issue. Thank you, Kristiana Reed!

The poems are from my collection of memoir poems about my mother and me. I look forward to your impressions of them once this issue is published.

Memoir · My Mother · Poem · Publication · Spillwords

Cooking a Life with a Wire Spine – New Publication

extraordinarysunshineweaver4 Comments

Today, as a FEATURED post, Spillwords Press published a memoir poem I wrote about me and my mother. I’m so excited. Thank you, Spillwords!

https://spillwords.com/cooking-a-life-with-a-wire-spine/

This poem is one of 63 poems in my first poetry collection, a poetic memoir of my mother and me. More to come on that!

New Publication!
Dark Poets Club · Healing · Poem · Publication

New Publication!

extraordinarysunshineweaver9 Comments

I received a nice surprise today, another poem up with Dark Poets Club (England). They are generous and accept poems from your blog, in case you are interested. So some of you may recognize this poem. Also, I like them because the small submission fee is donated to mental health causes.

https://www.darkpoets.club/post/the-unwelcome-tenant

Such an Honor
Honors · Memoir · Publication · Well Versed

Such an Honor

extraordinarysunshineweaver5 Comments

Well Versed 2021: A Collection of Poetry and Prose accepted three of my poems. One earned Third Place in Poetry and another, Honorary Mention. The anthology can be purchased on Amazon. Thank you Columbia Writers Guild, judges, and editors!

Honorary Mention

From Your Son

     In Memory of George Floyd (May 25, 2020)

I am through, Mama.

Across shackled seas

These chains & ropes

knuckled tight to hanging trees.

Hate, a masquerade

under white, hooded robes,

disguised constraints,              

a force of captivity

in black and white terms

from fields to farms

to racial divide.

Our souls, handcuffed                 

to plows, to prisons,

as crosses burned,

sisters raped,

brothers gunned down

for opening their own gates.

But no one can cut our stride,

nor can the blue shield

take another knee

to choke our certitude

to force us to salute servitude.          

Mama, see how

our crest of unity rises.

The world resounds     

our gospel songs

of grief released                      

from collapsed lungs

just so that

we can

breathe!  

Third-Place in Poetry

Picasso Dreams Broken Glass

      In response to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol (2021)

Thrust down with a fumbling hand

in the light of the slumberous moon

crashing into the crater in my chest

all that pain of after death, the broken glass,

the splintering cries of those who gather by the gate

& wonder where to go & who to see

& ask if there’s a place for their guns

or something organic to eat,

but why cast onto me

this surreal art of disharmony:

jumbling discordant shards,

the jagged insurrections of clouds

& murders by crowds,

& those who rage, their fire snuffed out

by wet whimpers

& so they drown in grief,

but why pursue me, as though I

could decode this absurd collage,

take on the lake-effect breeze

of a dense fog that steeps

in a mind that cannot sleep,

much less dream of rainbowed gardens.

Why seek me to recast their shattered sorrow,

scattered chaotic clutter,

their Felliniesque costumes?

I don’t know the half of it.

Estate Sale
Healing · Memoir · My Father · October Hill Magazine · Poem · Publication · Writing

Estate Sale

extraordinarysunshineweaver4 Comments

I have a new publication in October Hill Magazine, Spring Issue, page 92. The title of the poem is “Estate Sale”. You can also read the poem here, (but the format is not correct. I don’t know how to fix it.)

https://www.octoberhillmagazine.com/archives

Estate Sale 

“When someone is missing, their possessions take on meanings.” 

– Claudia Emerson (1957-2014)

How the day lays the gray fog into rain
That presses on fallen leaves with bent stems.

Am I ready to sweep them into bags –
Gently used jackets, old woven mittens?

Tell me who needs this apparel of trees

One leaf still clings, my father, not yet braced

To give up his old toys, schoolbooks, first gun.

He wrote a memoir that ended with me.

Perhaps he thought I would know my story,

Or he didn’t want to get it all wrong.

A sole leaf still being written on bark,

He cleaves to the long branch of his mother.

An ancient oak, pruned to keep her health up,

She cannot stretch her limbs out to the clouds.

Instead, her girth grows thick, her stature short,

A broad support for plumage & branches,

To which father maintains a firm handhold.

I gather their china, albums, & garlands.

I wash her face & dress her in twinkling lights. 

Father lets go as I head to the sale.   

 

Healing · Phoebe, MD: Medicine + Poetry · Poetry

A Blessing for You — PhoebeMD: Medicine + Poetry

extraordinarysunshineweaver2 Comments

By Barbara Leonhard | Featured Contributor Dear Friends, most of us would agree that this past year has been extremely challenging if not tragic. Many of you have documented your pain and grief in poetry, fiction, and essays. St. Patrick’s Day is today and Easter is coming up, so it’s a good time for us to transmute…

A Blessing for You — PhoebeMD: Medicine + Poetry

Thank you, Phoebe, for publishing my blessing!

A Blessing
Healing · Micropoetry · Poem · Writing

A Blessing

extraordinarysunshineweaver11 Comments

Dear Friends, most of us would agree that this past year has been extremely challenging if not tragic. Many of you have documented your pain and grief in poetry, fiction, and essays. St. Patrick’s Day is on Wednesday and Easter is coming up, so it’s a good time for us to transmute our sorrow and fear into blessings. It’s spring, a time of rebirth as we see the daffodils blooming. Although daffodils are sometimes pelted by one last snowfall, they are resilient. Indeed, spring is full of promise as four-leaf clovers await our search for good health and fortune. The fourth leaf, luck, adds to the trinity, so even if we fail to find the four-leaf clover, we are truly never alone. With love, I offer this blessing.

May you be blessed.

May good luck follow you always.

May you be healthy and thus wealthy.

May your heart be filled with grace

not grief.

May your home be filled with love,

not languor.

May your days be filled with mystery,

not misery.

May your back never bend in storm.

May friends and family gather at last     

in your welcoming arms.

Feature Image: by artistlike on pixabay.com

Image of the daffodil: by MrGajowy3 on pixabay