Published by Meelosmom
I am a poet weaver. I love going within to excavate the bits of my soul that need reassembly into words.
I weave in other ways. I’m also a collagist, assembling snippets of images into a new whole with deep meaning. Each collage is a poem. This year, I've also started drawing neurographica, and since beginning this art therapy, I can't believe how many new connections I've been making and new opportunities. This art form has changed my life and, I believe, my poetry writing.
I can also call myself a memoirist. 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. This year I found a publisher for my book - EIF (Experiments in Fiction), which is owned and operated by Ingrid Wilson. The book was the #1 Release in Family Poetry on Oct. 15, 2022, and it attained best-seller status in three poetry categories over the next few days.
In Nov. 2022, EIF nominated me for a Pushcart Prize for a poem in my book, “Mom and I Play Lassos with our Hysterectomy Scars”.
In 2021-22, I submitted 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.” My poem "Marie Kondo Cleans My Purse at Starbuck's" was voted publication of Jan/Feb in 2022.
In June 2022, I was honored to have two poems from my collection published in what became an Amazon best-selling anthology Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women (Gabriela Marie Milton. ed., also published by EIF - Experiments in Fiction).
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.
This year I've also enjoyed interviews with Eri Nelson with SheShedStudios on VloggingPod (June 2); with Victoria Onofrei for "Victoria in Verse" on Bloomsbury Radio (August 14); with Thomas Whyte for Poetry Mini Interviews (a 5-part series in August and September); with Paul Brookes for Wombwell Rainbow (July 22); and others are forthcoming.
In November, Gabriela Marie Milton asked me if I would succeed her as Editor for Masticadores USA, and I really love it!
My husband Dierik is a musician of Bluegrass, Cajun, and Country music. He's also a wonderful music teacher. We've rescued and lost many cats over the years. Our last set of three cats is now down to one, Jasper, who was the youngest of the three. JoJo and Saga sadly succumbed to cancers since the pandemic started.
Catch me at...
Facebook: Barbara Leonhard
Twitter: @Barbara.Leonhar4
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.
©2022 Barbara Leonhard
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.
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I have nominated you for the Liebster Award 🙂 If you except the award, I’ve posted a blog with the rules and questions to follow, in which you will then post onto a blog post of your own.
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Oh, thank you! I am so honored and humbled by this. I will check out the post. I am new to awards. I may have questions. Again, thsnk you for reading the poems.
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Your welcome😄Not a problem, I had numerous questions as well lol. So don’t hesitate if you have any questions. Keep the poems coming:)
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Some of my followers have more than 200 followers. Some don’t post their number. How do you find out the number? I think WordPress thinks I have over 400 due to social networks but I have under 200 on WordPress.
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This was a difficult one for us as well. An easy way to find out which Luckily I just so happened to stumble upon is click on “reader” top of page, and in the search bar type in the names of any followers you have or bloggers that you have engaged with that you would like to nominate. when you do, in the right upper corner it will say how many followers they have.
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Oh I forgot, you’ll see a list of that person’s blog posts under the search bar, click on their name on any one of those post and it will then pull up a preview of their page with their follower count in the right hand corner
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Thanks! I found the information. 🙂
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Great!
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It took time to find the blogs and so on, but I learned quite a bit!
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Yeah I hear ya. It does take a bit of time but exactly, you learn the rope of things
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I have enjoyed your poetry today. Each one. A wonderful journey into good words.
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Thank you so much! I have found some great poets on your site. Good role models! Thank you for your encouragement!
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We need to help each other. Room for a billion writer. If we had more readers and writers. Would be more understanding in our world. You are welcome..
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Yes, for sure! We need to grow the garden of peace and love.
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I’m fairly new to WordPress and haven’t reblogged anything yet. Still getting my bearings.
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Many fear competition. I believe each writer. Different and special in their own ways.
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Just not sure how to manage everything on my page.
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It hard. I use five sites. Hard to maintain. I been on them for 8 years and more. Many friends I want to keep.
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Yes, that’s what I imagined. I’m trying to simplify and focus on writing. I’ve been putting it off and taking on too many other things. Now I’m at the point when I can write again. Having a blog is still new to me, so I’m exploring how people develop their sites. Competition is good. Just getting my bearings. 😊
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Reblogged this on O LADO ESCURO DA LUA.
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Thank you! I’m happy you enjoyed the poem.
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