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 publish writing […]
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 to blink twice
our true being stood naked
without shame
our reflection more lustrous
than knowing
brilliantine fabric
until the apple fell
into Mother’s soft hands
our Mother, the first to grieve
her garden lost
how she still clings to the maiden
the stunning beauty she once was
now deflowered, exposed to erosion
our Eden, our innocence and purity,
victim to change, to corruption, to decline,
our undoing
no one …. no thing is our eternity
our heaven forever
on this plane
nothing lasts
so we grieve
feeling abandoned by joy
and cast out of a divine place
though we cling to the fading innocence
of our Eden,
we bless grief
Written in Response to Robert Frost, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”
Nothing Gold Can Stay
BY ROBERT FROST
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.
**Poetry Foundation
My poem ends with, “We bless grief”. Why? I explain in my podcast. 😇
©2020 Barbara Harris Leonhard
extraordinarysunshineweaver.wordpress.com
meelosmom@podbean.com (Poetry: The Memoir of the Soul)
Image: Pixabay
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 dew and noon rains,
now forgets in autumn light.
Baskets of Gold, having bloomed and stretched for sun,
now shrivel, scorched by drought.
Honeysuckle, a trespasser in flora
that once nurtured monarchs and bees.
Wisdom of soils and seedlings,
now crumbles to dust.
Once a bounty of bliss, now wild bramble
on depleted soil.
Her secret garden.
©2020 Barbara Harris Leonhard (Revision of The Garden of Thoughts)
extraordinarysunshineweaver.wordpress.com
meelosmom@podbean.com (Poetry: The Memoir of the Soul)
Images: my end of summer garden
Revised from A Garden of Thoughts
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
some days too short for food
nests lay bare as squirrels forage
the wind cools me to my roots
I am glass
holding on to my reflections
lest they be lost to twilight
Grace clothes me in a gown
meant for a bride embracing her heart
this pure finery sparkles as diamonds
on my icy bough
I rest with the Angel of Mercy
©2019 Barbara Harris Leonhard
extraordinarysunshineweaver.wordpress.com
meelosmom@podbean.com (Poetry: The Memoir of the Soul)
Image: my yard
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 at this uncertain and dangerous time. Bats!? Really!? Wasn’t a bat responsible for the virus? Tune in to find out why bats also have magical and mystical messages for us in the face of COVID-19. May we all be safe and healthy.
You can find my poetry on WordPress at https://extraordinarysunshineweaver.blogI shared my poems “Tree of Life”, “Fireflies” and “Dolphins”.
My featured image, “New Dimensions”, is one of my sister Martha Harris’ pieces. Her work can be found at Martha’s Artistic Flarings, artisticflarings.blog on WordPress.
Sharon Singing Moon, “Sometimes It’s a Song” in A Random Seed (2018). You can find her book at local bookstores, such as Skylark Bookshop and Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia, Missouri, at Dunaway Books in St. Louis, Missouri, and Prospero’s Books in Kansas City, Missouri.
Mitch Teemley, “The Lives of Trees”, found on WordPress, https://mitchteemley.com/2020/02/21/the-lives-of-trees/
Joyce Kilmer, “Trees” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12744/trees
Yaskhan, “Firefly Gumbo”, https://yassy66.wordpress.com/ From Mumbai, poetry has always been her utmost passion. Her haiku and other poems have been published in several on line journals. She enjoys the challenges of writing in various poetic form and believes this creative discipline helps her to overcome several challenges.
Emily Dickinson, https://discoverpoetry.com/poems/bee-poems/
Mary Oliver, “Honey at the Table” American Primitive (1983) winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.
Kristiana Reed, “The Meadow” from her book, Between the Trees: Poetry and Prose (2019), which is available on amazon.com and signed copies can be purchased on etsy, https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/760618337/between-the-trees-poetry-and-prose. Her websites, https://myscreamingtwenties.com/ and https://freeverserevolution.wordpress.com/
William Henry Davies, “The Moon” http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/william_henry_davies/poems/3088.html
Phillip Larkin, “Solar”, http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/philip_larkin/poems/14593
Other Sources
“Fireflies”, https://www.sunsigns.org/firefly-animal-totem-symbolism-meanings/
Orion, http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/orion.htm
Pleiades, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pleiades-Greek-mythology
https://mollylarkin.com/we-come-from-the-stars/
Dolphins, https://medium.com/@totemlovecom/the-characteristics-of-the-dolphin-as-a-spirit-animal-ba303364bbba;
https://www.livescience.com/15150-dolphin-recovery-human-healing.html; https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/wisdom-of-the-wild-dolphin-healing/859/
Royal Jelly, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/royal-jelly
Bees, https://sciencing.com/advantages-disadvantages-honeybees-8592788.html
The Moon, https://www.sunsigns.org/moon-symbol-meanings/
If you would like to contribute poetry to this podcast, you may submit it to me in a Word document attached in an email to me at meelosmom@gmail.com. On the subject line, indicate it is a submission to this podcast. I can fit it into a theme. In the email, include any pertinent information on yourself and publications you want me to promote, especially for the work submitted.
© 2020 Barbara Harris Leonhard
Unless otherwise stated, all published works are the original works of the author and are copyrighted. Contents of this podcast 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 podcast embedded.
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 the […]
via Grief: Healing Through Poetry — Phoebe, MD: Medicine + Poetry
©Barbara Leonhard, extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog; meelosmom.podbean.com
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.
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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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 “This a River”.
Enjoy a poem by Walter Bargen: “Why the World Stops”, which is from his volume of poetry The Body of Water: Poetry by Walter Bargen (2003). You can find used copies of this book on Amazon, Better World Books, and other used book sites.
I’m grateful to Sharon Singing Moon for her poem “Autumn Grace” in A Random Seed (2018). You can find her book at local bookstores, such as Skylark Bookshop and Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia, Missouri, at Dunaway Books in St. Louis, Missouri, and Prospero’s Books in Kansas City, Missouri.
My featured image, “Sacred Waters”, is one of my sister Martha Harris’ pieces. Her work can be found at Martha’s Artistic Flarings, artisticflarings.blog on WordPress.
You will hear “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost (http://poetryfoundation.org); “Very Early Spring” by Katherine Mansfield (http://famouspoetsandpoems.com); “Tempest”, by Emily Dickinson (http://yourdailypoem.com)
I found an interesting article on the symbolism of water in literature. https://eduzaurus.com/blog/water-symbolism-in-literature
For more information on chakras, see Anatomy of the Spirit (1996) and Sacred Contracts (2003) by Caroline Myss, PhD. Also, A Handbook of Chakra Healing: Spiritual Practice for Health, Harmony, and Healing (2004) by Kalashatra Govinda.
Wikipedia has a good summary of the Great Flood of 1993. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1993
Please like, follow, and share this podcast. Thank you for listening!
If you would like to contribute poetry to this podcast, you may submit it to me in a Word document attached in an email to me at meelosmom@gmail.com. On the subject line, indicate it is a submission to this podcast. I can fit it into a theme. In the email, include any pertinent information on yourself and publications you want me to promote, especially for the work submitted.
©Barbara Harris Leonhard, extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog, meelosmom.podbean.com
Image “Sacred Waters” ©Martha Harris, Martha’s Artistic Flarings, artisticflarings.blog
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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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 