Thank you, Silver Birch Press!
Instituto Terra by Barbara Leonhard “Nature is the earth and it is other beings and if we don’t have some kind of spiritual return to our planet, I …
Instituto Terra by Barbara Leonhard (HOW TO HEAL THE EARTH Series)
My gratitude to the editors at Spillwords Press, Rebecca M. and Dagmara K., for the invitation to be interviewed. It was a delight and honor.
My gratitude to the editors of Anti-Heroin Chic for publishing a poem of mine in this month’s issue.
http://heroinchic.weebly.com/blog/poetry-by-barbara-harris-leonhard
I am a poet weaver. Many of my poems are spiritual, for I love going within to excavate the bits of my soul that need reassembly into words. As a sunshine weaver, I’m also a collagist, assembling snippets of images into a new whole with deep meaning. Each collage is a poem.
My poetry weaves together the metaphysical, metaphorical, magical, and mystical around grief, loss, love, and forgiveness. I believe healing words are so needed at this time. It is empowering to read poetry aloud, so I also started a poetry podcast on Podbean called Poetry: The Memoir of the Soul. meelosmom.podbean.com
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. I am looking for a publisher for the book and am investing in entering some contests.
Meanwhile, I am submitting 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.”
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.
I’m married and have two rescued male cats, Saga and Jasper. My husband Dierik is a musician of Bluegrass, Cajun, and Country music. He’s also a wonderful music teacher.
Catch me at…
Poetry Podcast: meelosmom.podbean.com
Facebook: Barbara Harris Leonhard
Twitter: @Barbara17609138
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.
Copyright © 2021 Barbara Harris Leonhard
Image: by Jessicajoh on Pixabay
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.
My poem Cooking a Life with a Wire Spine has been nominated for Publication of the Month at Spillwords Press. People can vote for the poem by clicking on the link. You may have to register for free to vote. Thank you!! 🙏🙏🙏
Update: My poem didn’t make Publication of the Month. Maybe another time! 🍾🍾🍾
Today, as a FEATURED post, Spillwords Press published a memoir poem I wrote about me and my mother. I’m so excited. Thank you, Spillwords!
https://spillwords.com/cooking-a-life-with-a-wire-spine/
This poem is one of 63 poems in my first poetry collection, a poetic memoir of my mother and me. More to come on that!
Well Versed 2021: A Collection of Poetry and Prose accepted three of my poems. One earned Third Place in Poetry and another, Honorary Mention. The anthology can be purchased on Amazon. Thank you Columbia Writers Guild, judges, and editors!
Honorary Mention
From Your Son
In Memory of George Floyd (May 25, 2020)
I am through, Mama.
Across shackled seas
These chains & ropes
knuckled tight to hanging trees.
Hate, a masquerade
under white, hooded robes,
disguised constraints,
a force of captivity
in black and white terms
from fields to farms
to racial divide.
Our souls, handcuffed
to plows, to prisons,
as crosses burned,
sisters raped,
brothers gunned down
for opening their own gates.
But no one can cut our stride,
nor can the blue shield
take another knee
to choke our certitude
to force us to salute servitude.
Mama, see how
our crest of unity rises.
The world resounds
our gospel songs
of grief released
from collapsed lungs
just so that
we can
breathe!
Third-Place in Poetry
Picasso Dreams Broken Glass
In response to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol (2021)
Thrust down with a fumbling hand
in the light of the slumberous moon
crashing into the crater in my chest
all that pain of after death, the broken glass,
the splintering cries of those who gather by the gate
& wonder where to go & who to see
& ask if there’s a place for their guns
or something organic to eat,
but why cast onto me
this surreal art of disharmony:
jumbling discordant shards,
the jagged insurrections of clouds
& murders by crowds,
& those who rage, their fire snuffed out
by wet whimpers
& so they drown in grief,
but why pursue me, as though I
could decode this absurd collage,
take on the lake-effect breeze
of a dense fog that steeps
in a mind that cannot sleep,
much less dream of rainbowed gardens.
Why seek me to recast their shattered sorrow,
scattered chaotic clutter,
their Felliniesque costumes?
I don’t know the half of it.
I have a new publication in October Hill Magazine, Spring Issue, page 92. The title of the poem is “Estate Sale”. You can also read the poem here, (but the format is not correct. I don’t know how to fix it.)
https://www.octoberhillmagazine.com/archives
Estate Sale
“When someone is missing, their possessions take on meanings.”
– Claudia Emerson (1957-2014)
How the day lays the gray fog into rain
That presses on fallen leaves with bent stems.
Am I ready to sweep them into bags –
Gently used jackets, old woven mittens?
Tell me who needs this apparel of trees
One leaf still clings, my father, not yet braced
To give up his old toys, schoolbooks, first gun.
He wrote a memoir that ended with me.
Perhaps he thought I would know my story,
Or he didn’t want to get it all wrong.
A sole leaf still being written on bark,
He cleaves to the long branch of his mother.
An ancient oak, pruned to keep her health up,
She cannot stretch her limbs out to the clouds.
Instead, her girth grows thick, her stature short,
A broad support for plumage & branches,
To which father maintains a firm handhold.
I gather their china, albums, & garlands.
I wash her face & dress her in twinkling lights.
Father lets go as I head to the sale.
Hello, my friends,
I’ve been away too long! This year has been challenging as you must know. However, I am getting back into my soul work. Here is my latest episode. The theme is mental health, and Denise shares her journey of recovery with a lot of great advice and links.
Memoirs of Denise Fletcher (podbean.com)
This episode highlights the memoirs and concerns of the poet and blogger, Denise Fletcher. Check out her author page on Amazon.com and her amazing blog.
Denise Fletcher is a freelance writer and artist. Her creative works have appeared in Bards Against Hunger, Kaleidoscope Magazine and numerous publications in the U.S., Canada and the U.K.
Blog: Poetry Curator, poetrycurator2020.blogspot.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0084KZMCE
Her book, Thread of Hope, can be found in the link below, and she returns all the profits to aid in causes related to mental illness. The book “explores the boundaries of the mental health system”. It includes “semi-autobiographical poetry, prose, and art which demonstrates the healing power of creativity and spirituality” in mental health recovery.
To access a free copy of Thread of Hope and other free books and materials:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bvXlCPAmVR-1fk03GqB-K86C4k1UwBmK
Mental Health and Wellness Resources Recommended by Denise Fletcher https://poetrycurator2020.blogspot.com/p/wellness.html
Depression-free for Life: A Physician’s All-Natural, 5-Step Plan
by Gabriel Cousens https://www.amazon.com/Depression-free-Life-Physicians-All-Natural-5-Step/dp/0060959657
Other Links
CDC Mental Health and Coping During COVID-19
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/managing-stress-anxiety.html
The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill: https://nami.org/
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
1-800-273-8255
Barbara Harris Leonhard is a writer, poet, and blogger. Her work appears in Phoebe, MD: Medicine and Poetry, Well Versed 2020, Spillwords; FREE VERSE REVOLUTION; Heretics, Lovers and Madmen; Go Dog Go Café; Silver Birch Press; Amethyst Review; Pillbaby.com; and Vita Brevis. She is the author of Discoveries in Academic Writing, which is based on her years of teaching English as a Second Language at the University of Missouri.
Blog: extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog
Podcast: meelosmom.podbean.com
To submit your poetic memoirs and concerns to this podcast, follow this link for the submission guidelines.
I have a new poetry podcast on the Memoirs, of Susi Bocks. You can find it here – https://meelosmom.podbean.com/e/memoirs-of-susi-bocks/
This episode features the memoirs of Susi Bocks, who courageously shares her painful upbringing by a dysfunctional and abusive mother. Grief and anger hide in wait for illumination when Susi’s heart opens to reveal her self-worth, which was so beaten down over the years. Susi shows us that we can come to terms with our past and overcome parental abuse, which often results from transgenerational trauma.
Susi Bocks, writer/author/poet, has self-published two books: Feeling Human and Every Day I Pause. You can find her work at IWriteHer.com or follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/MyHumanityInWrittenForm/, where she invites you to read her thoughts and get to know her. Bocks’ work has been published in the anthology SMITTEN: This Is What Love Looks Like: Poetry by Women for Women and in VitaBrevis, Spillwords, Literary Yard, as well as other literary magazines.
Editor-in-Chief: The Short of It
Website: IWriteHer.com
Links: Transgenerational Trauma and Epigenetics
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-me-in-we/201205/how-trauma-is-carried-across-generations
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190326-what-is-epigenetics
Barbara Harris Leonhard is a writer, poet, and blogger. Her work appears in Phoebe, MD: Medicine and Poetry, Well Versed 2020, Spillwords; FREE VERSE REVOLUTION; Heretics, Lovers and Madmen; Go Dog Go Café; Silver Birch Press; Amethyst Review; Pillbaby.com; and Vita Brevis. She is the author of Discoveries in Academic Writing, which is based on her years of teaching English as a Second Language at the University of Missouri.
Blog: extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog
Podcast: meelosmom.podbean.com
To submit your poetic memoirs and concerns to this podcast, follow this link for the submission guidelines.
Music for this episode: “Relaxing Afternoon”, royalty free music on Podbean
Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver 