Open to life
as a child would
in joy and curiosity,
each moment,
a birth.
Make life a quest,
not a test.
©extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog
Digital Image “Heart Journeys” ©Martha Harris@artisticflarings.com
Pain, The Poet
Pain, the Poet
Those who forgive,
Can they be poets,
For where is the poetry but
In released pain?
Pain, the fire breathing mist
Rising to rain.
Pain, the reddening blood
filling the veins,
The river of the soul.
Pain, the rooting to the sacral tree,
Birthing stories and songs,
Creating new souls out of barren wombs.
Pain, the cries from scattered tribes
Reaching for limbs and branches,
Anything to hold onto until dawn’s light.
Pain, the songs of ancestral curses
Clinging to the cells like webs
To be cleared in spring.
Pain, the dead rooting of loss
Blocking the secret chamber of the heart,
Where peace resides.
Pain, the tenant evading eviction,
Holding truth hostage
From inner sight
And auric brilliance.
Pain, the dirges and the hymns,
The shadows, dislodged and
Transmuted but not forgotten
In the poetry of forgiveness
And the forgiveness of poetry.
©2017/11/07 Barbara Harris Leonhard @extraordinarysunshineweaver.wordpress.com
Image: Digital art “Out of Darkness, Light” ©Martha Harris See Martha’s Artistic Flarings @artisticflarings.blog
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No Escape
This is an older poem but a more descriptive image of and by my sister Martha suffering her Multiple Sclerosis pain. Many suffer from this horrible disease, and I pray a cure can be found.
No Escape
It slithers in as
Snakes mating pain,
Pain entwined,
Breeding this labyrinth of
No escape.
No way out of this writhing mass,
This mass, secreting away Light.
This pain, eating the Light,
Our stars of many colors,
Forced as lanterns for
The rising heads of the serpents, or
Our souls, are they in formation
To defeat the onslaught?
Pain, this confused muddle
In the line of the Fire of the stars,
Blazing through the delirium,
The Light in the void,
The Fire in the pit,
Consuming the venom.
For pain,
No escape.
Copyright © 2017/10/10 Barbara Harris Leonhard @extraordinarysunshineweaver.wordpress.com
Image: “Living in ‘It’” ©Martha Harris (my sister) See Martha’s Artistic Flarings @artisticflarings.blog
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Entwined Spirit: Me, Myself, and I
Entwined Spirit: Me, Myself, and I
Let me introduce myself
This poem is about me
Inspired by my sister’s art that
She created from a photo of me.
She calls it “Entwined Spirit”
I am an entwined spirit
A composite of hues
Swirled to create a
Kaleidoscope of soul
A patchwork of many
Places and adventures
As we moved many times
I am a composite of Midwestern roots and accents
Giving sustenance to my many roles
As daughter, sister, friend, wife,
Teacher, friend, colleague, healer, poet, writer
I grayed young
The silver threads have bound
The quilt of my life
And kept people’s gaze
Off my hips and thighs
And kept the attention
Of my many international students
Who valued my wisdom
Though I was just a young woman
Who knew the English Language
I am retired now and feel
I lovingly earned every gray hair
I have many scars
As many women do
And we often compare our rites of passage
From maiden
To sage and goddess
One is carved down my abdomen
Another on my throat
Two cancer scares
That came with a surprise appendectomy
Pending a septic explosion
Needless to say,
This all led me on the path of the wounded healer
Another scar is down my right side
The entryway for a new hip
The idea of losing my flesh and bone
Terrified me, but
Like many my age
I am now bionic
And the energy of my missing organs
Is still there for healing
For healing is a journey
And my scars create the journal
Of my womanhood unfolding
Into and out of chaos
Forming my “charism”
My grace
I have many faces
Aside from my social roles
Childless, I have mothered
My siblings and students so
“Mother” is my main archetype
As is my role as “Priestess”
For poetry is prayer
I am a “Sacred Companion” to the dying
I am a “Light Worker/ Healer” and have taught many
On this path
I started by healing myself of measles encephalitis
When I was 7
But that’s another poem on my blog
I really think I survived a
Near-death experience at that time
Because my entire view of life changed
And I wondered why
I couldn’t read minds after that
I have my shadows
I give to the expense of loss
For it is better to give than to receive
So I often feel like a candle
With no more wax
I sometimes feel abandoned and
Invisible, so entwined am in my soul
That I am a prisoner to myself
Introspective and more a listener
Than the life of a party
Depression made me ill and gave me
Those scars from surgeries
As illness finds a home
In a tortured soul
I constantly seek to transmute grief
To the light but
I have been unable to cry out loud
Since my mother died, so
The wells of tears are thirsty
Only my heart is wrenched open
When I feel suffering
And I feel my blood flood my chest
Despite all this
I am quite happy
Actually
I love my husband, home and cats
I love my sacred places and treasures
I love my rituals that begin and end my day
I love playing Tai Chi Chuan and Baguazhang
I love my Reiki clients and students
I love writing poetry and recording it
But wish I could publish more
I just haven’t tried much
And fear success and pressure
And I have been a bit lazy
Since my retirement
So looking back on my life
Has been a joyous experience
After all
I am not used to revealing my
Entwined soul to an audience
Although it is hidden well
In my other poems
I prefer to keep it a mystery that way
But now that I have spilled my guts
We are closer
Which is good in this life
Who am I really?
As the Mayans said, “In La’kech” (“ein lah kesh”)
“I am another yourself”
©Barbara Harris Leonhard @extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog
Image “Entwined Spirit” ©Martha Harris See Martha’s Artistic Flarings @artisticflarings.blog
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Duality
Duality
Caterpillar
Seeking the boundary
To cross over to new self
Grief ensues in changes
In between two selves
As one face is shorn
For the other and
Old ways expire but
Death is an illusion as
One self is torn away and
Transfigured into a new mystery
Incarnation
Butterfly, the math for transformation
Two sides to the equation
Both in perfect summation
Symmetrical wings
Lifting each self into
One and the same soul
The face of the soul
Is faceted
From one life to a new one
The grotesque becomes magnificent
In its symmetry
The soul grows through grief
Into gossamer wings
One soul
Two selves
One is shed for
Transcendence
And the other
Ascends out of
Duality.
©Barbara Harris Leonhard @extraordinarysunshineweaver.com
Digital art “Duality” ©Martha Harris See Martha’s Artistic Flarings @artisticflarings.blog
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Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver
This is an older poem explaining the origin of the name of my blog. I found this name with one of those fun apps that came across my Facebook page. Though the method to discover this name was mundane, the name speaks volumes. Source is all. I decided to keep the name for my journaling.
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.
©2017 Barbara Harris Leonhard@extraordinarysunshineweaver.com
Image: Digital Art “The Weaver” ©Martha Harris See Martha’s Artistic Flarings @artisticflarings.blog
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Healing
The Light is coming in to heal the curse of Ego. As we stand aside, we feel the mighty force of Cosmic Light. It feels like we are losing our minds or that our faces are being shorn off.
This is a painful, visceral upheaval. We feel turned inside out and upside down. We are so dizzy we can’t stand up alone. The battling vibrations of Ego and Light are rocking our souls. We scream and cry out. We hurl our food and creep under the covers, hiding from the shadows.
Out of fear, we just want to die to stop this agony as all is being revealed, the pus of our gross illnesses is emerging. We suffer dysfunctions socially, politically, and environmentally. We have screamed out our prayers for comfort and healing.
The Earth, as well, rages with floods, volcanic eruptions, fires, Category 5 storms. But Mother knows the Light is here. We see it in the firefighters, the rescuers, the soldiers.
The healing is evident. Out of fire comes new growth. Out of eruptions come new lands. Out of storms comes renewal. Floods carry away the past.
The Light is here. It’s in our voices and our intentions. It’s in our manifestations. We wanted this healing, and we are getting it. We prayed for salvation and victory, and so it is. We think this pain is against us, but it is for us. It is answering our prayers.
This is Cosmic truth. Laws prevail. The universe is orderly, and equilibrium must be sustained. God maintains the balance of all life in all dimensions. The pendulum never swings in one direction.
A healing always feels worse before health is restored to wholeness. The wounds cry out until scabbed over. We’ve spilled our blood and sacrificed our limbs. How can we ever become whole again? It would be so easy to curse our condition! Damn this life! Why us!
In our victim stare, we hide in addictions. We bully. We put ourselves ahead of others. We lie. We seek revenge. In so doing, we become what we hate. Anything to mask the agony. We are so powerless in this state.
Little do we know, this is cosmic healing. It is God Force healing involving a huge upheaval of forces involving universal truth. Love will prevail. It always does, especially if we all participate as we are the shamanic link between Heaven and Earth. We are the healers bringing in the light.
Have faith. We are a strong force battling Ego so as to heal. Whenever we stand together and speak up, rest assured that Ego never wins, Ego never wins, Ego never wins.
Love prevails. Nothing can block out the Light. Have faith. Stand aside. Let in the Light to answer your prayers. Become one with the Light. Be the prayer! Make it so!
©Barbara Harris Leonhard @extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog
