I wrote earlier today about personal struggles I am having deciding what to post on Brave and Reckless during these uncertain times (While Rome Burns). My very wise friend Georgiann Carlson at Rethinking Life reminded me that I am known for my writing/creativity prompts and that it would make sense for me to collect and... Continue Reading →
Before Eden Fell
This poem is included in an article I wrote for Phoebe, MD: Medicine + Poetry (https://phoebemd.com/2020/03/12/fire-ice-the-faces-of-grief/). The article is based on my poetry podcast Grief: Fire and Ice, which features this poem (https://meelosmom.podbean.com/e/grief-fire-and-ice/). Before Eden Fell We were all immortal, our beauty, captured forever in flora and fauna so brilliant that light itself had... Continue Reading →
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Erosion
This poem is included in an article I wrote for Phoebe, MD: Medicine + Poetry (https://phoebemd.com/2020/03/16/alzheimers-grieving-the-loss-of-my-mother/). The article is based on my poetry podcast Grief: Fire and Ice (https://meelosmom.podbean.com/e/grief-fire-and-ice/). Erosion A garden once planted in spring, bearing life in shade and sun, is now tangled with weeds and blight. A hearty yield once sustained by... Continue Reading →
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Grace
This poem is included in an article I wrote for Phoebe, MD: Medicine + Poetry (https://phoebemd.com/2020/03/21/grief-healing-through-poetry/). The article is based on my poetry podcast Grief: Fire and Ice (https://meelosmom.podbean.com/e/grief-fire-and-ice/). Grace the leaves have fallen and stomped to dust I am laid bare, exposed to wind my limbs, brittle, still pleading for a meal of sun... Continue Reading →
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Podcast Magical Mystical Nature
A new episode of my poetry podcast, Poetry: The Memoir of the Soul, is up. https://meelosmom.podbean.com/e/magical-mystical-nature/ In this episode, I take a poetic look at messages from our magical mystical nature that can help us to emotionally navigate the challenges of COVID-19. Trees, fireflies, dolphins, bees, the moon, the sun, and bats are guiding us... Continue Reading →
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Grief: Healing Through Poetry — Phoebe, MD: Medicine + Poetry
By Barbara Leonhard [This is the third segment of a 3-part series on Grief and Loss. To read the previous post, click here.] I processed grief over Mom’s struggle with Alzheimer’s through poetry writing. The fact that caregivers—such as myself and many other poets—can relieve grief through poetry supports my belief that poetry is both... Continue Reading →
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Alzheimer’s: Grieving the Loss of My Mother
Phoebemd.com has published the second part of my article on my mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s. You can access Part 1 via the link provided before the article starts.
These installments are based on my poetry podcast on this topic.
https://meelosmom.podbean.com/e/grief-fire-and-ice/
Please like, share, and follow. Others with loved ones who have Alzheimer’s may benefit from the information.
[This is the second segment of a 3-part series on Grief and Alzheimer’s. To read the first post, click here.]
As a way to examine grief and loss, I will share my story of the loss of my mother to Alzheimer’s, one of the most devastating forms of dementia.
What is Alzheimer’s?
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s Disease is a dementia caused by the building up of plaques—deposits of protein fragments that create spaces between neurons (nerve cells)—as well as tau tangles inside the cells of the brain itself.
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Podcast Water: The Sacral Way
Enjoy this exploration of the sacral way of water. Our steady and constant companion in various forms throughout the year, water reflects our creativity as well as our turmoil. Our emotional states are revealed in the many faces of water. https://meelosmom.podbean.com/e/water-the-sacral-way/ I share my poems “Listen to the Prayers of Snow”, “Be as Water”, and... Continue Reading →
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Fire & Ice: The Faces of Grief
My poetry podcast on Grief: Fire and Ice, which shares my journey with Mom through Alzheimer’s will be published in segments on phoebemd.com. Here is the first installment. Check out her site. It is a source of poetry and articles on healing. We all need to bolster our immune systems, especially now with the stress and fear we feel in our daily lives and with COVID-19 spreading. Sites like Phoebe’s offer stories and poems of hope and recovery.
The original poetry podcast can be found at meelosmom.podbean.com (Poetry: The Memoir of the Soul). The episode is Grief: Fire and Ice.
©Barbara Leonhard, extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog
Robert Frost once wrote:
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
Online, one can find many poets who sing about their grief. In this lyrical piece, Frost tells us that we face changes all the time. Eden, our paradise, has been lost. Life is temporary, terminal, and short lived. The sun both rises and falls; the seasons change, and we grieve.
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MOON ATE THE DARK CHALLENGE: MOON EATS THE DARK – BARBARA LEONHARD
This poem has been republished on hereticsloversmadmen.com. Check out the “seething brains” that “shape fantasies there”.
In a nest of owls,
I awaken bare, bleeding.
Talons pierce flesh.
Stabbing beaks shear old skin,
mincing fat and bone.
I am released into cloud.
Glossy wings unfurl.
I chase stars
and alight onto rays
of petrified time.
I scan marvel
as Moon eats the dark.
I feast on corolla
of sunflowers that sway in breeze
as Owl eats the light.
Image ‘Owl Eats Light’ by Barbara Leonhard
Barbara Leonhard publishes poetry on her WordPress blog, Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver. She is a regular contributor to FREE VERSE REVOLUTION and Go Dog Go Café. She started a poetry podcast on Podbean called Poetry: The Memoir of the Soul.
Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver 