Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver

I have three poems up on American Poet. “Senescence,” “Winter Prayers,” and “The Girl with the Pearl Earring.” Thank you so much, editor Faiyaj Islam Fahim!

https://www.americanpoet.org/2025/09/barbara-harris-leonhard-poetry-one-of.html

You too can submit 10 poems with a bio and author image to Faiyaj Islam Fahim at the email address below.

📩 Email: americanpoet6@gmail.com
🌐 Website: www.americanpoet.org

My Poems….

Senescence
 
The coneflowers 
sway in a breeze
The life of each blossom,
slowly fading
A bumblebee flits 
from stamen to stamen
Another alights on my silver hair
Then springs off, seeking
a heartier bloom.

Winter Prayers
 
The sound of snow is holy.
Old bark listens to the lilting chants
 
of processions of children 
on drifting banks.
 
Laughter resounds as accolades.
Sleds leave trails to be filled with new pilgrims.
 
Cardinals trumpet requiems on brittle limbs,
hanging tenuously in blizzards.
 
Squirrels forage in frozen soil under a white sky—
The sun has its own prophecy in ice.
 
Mountains awaken to the tired hikers 
seeking sanctuary.
 
Pines stand as preachers—
Creeks are too frozen for parables.
 
I have a warm hearth by a fire.
My window opens to this temple, 
 
bringing me inside myself
to listen to the prayers of snow.
 
The Girl with the Pearl Earring 
        	The pearl is a healed wound. - Mulheres de alma curada.

It’s not about what she’s wearing, 
the palette-approved 
lapis lazuli, ultramarine turban
coarse, yellowed scarf
bronzed frock
 
It’s where she’s venturing,
into translucent green waves, 
the rising obliquity on her path,
to fancy her palate,
that which he knows may wound
his creation, caught in transient flutter.
 
She briefly turns a feathery step
away from the looming umbra
Her dewy skin glistens 
against the abyss
Her unblinking eyes shimmer as pearls,
alert & expectant
Her demure lips part 
into a glossy question
 
he gently arranges her light 
into vibrant pearl luster
& strokes the linen 
of her shadows, Why
 
do we bring innocence 
into the world,
but to shock obscurity?

(WordPress removed this poem's formatting. You can see the format I used in the published post.)

© Barbara Leonhard