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!
I received a nice surprise today, another poem up with Dark Poets Club (England). They are generous and accept poems from your blog, in case you are interested. So some of you may recognize this poem. Also, I like them because the small submission fee is donated to mental health causes.
https://www.darkpoets.club/post/the-unwelcome-tenant
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.
Dear Friends, most of us would agree that this past year has been extremely challenging if not tragic. Many of you have documented your pain and grief in poetry, fiction, and essays. St. Patrick’s Day is on Wednesday and Easter is coming up, so it’s a good time for us to transmute our sorrow and fear into blessings. It’s spring, a time of rebirth as we see the daffodils blooming. Although daffodils are sometimes pelted by one last snowfall, they are resilient. Indeed, spring is full of promise as four-leaf clovers await our search for good health and fortune. The fourth leaf, luck, adds to the trinity, so even if we fail to find the four-leaf clover, we are truly never alone. With love, I offer this blessing.
May you be blessed.
May good luck follow you always.
May you be healthy and thus wealthy.
May your heart be filled with grace
not grief.
May your home be filled with love,
not languor.
May your days be filled with mystery,
not misery.
May your back never bend in storm.
May friends and family gather at last
in your welcoming arms.
Feature Image: by artistlike on pixabay.com
Image of the daffodil: by MrGajowy3 on pixabay
To all my peeps… some of my poetry and art for the new year! Happy New Year! May 2021 lift us to new heights! To soar!
May 2021 lift you out of depleted soil.
To soar. To soar in sun.
Free. Free in sheer air,
Where you dream. Dream.
Not despair,
Not dread.
Not drown in storm.
May you rise. Rise.
Rise!
Collage art and poem by Barbara Leonhard extraordinarysunshineweaver.blog
May your holiday season
be filled with sweets
May you be blessed with good health & wealth
May the new year be magical
as your mystery unfolds
May the new year be loving
as kindness kindles transformation
but most of all
May all dreams be fulfilled, my friend,
but allow for surprise around each bend
May you find peace in your heart
though the world be apart
May you find solace in loss
& a healer in grief
May you be courageous & fierce
in the face of fear
May your heart open
to the dizzy impossible
May your way take you
to the quiet now
as birth awaits you there.
♥️♥️♥️
poetry & collage art by Barbara Leonhard
Cymbidium I. He gifts her an orchid. Says, Three ice cubes a week So as not to drown it. Her joints sound of cracked ice As she gingerly accepts My lush pink blooms Of wet lips open For drink & good light. II. The house has no sun. Unpruned branches of wild flora Cluster close […]
Cymbidium – a poem by Barbara Harris Leonhard — Amethyst Review
Image by JacLou-DL from Pixabay
I kneel on the rocky shore of the river searching for myself. My image reflects off the shiny water. The glimmer of a familiar face in a tough time. But then, the wind picks up, ripples the waves, Splays my long hair into gray tendrils. In the riffle, one eye opens, one eye closes. My […]
(UPDATE: This poem is archived – the link no longer works – because FREE VERSE REVOLUTION has a new literary magazine. If you wish to access this link, let me know.)
Awash into a Broken Mirror – Barbara Leonhard — FREE VERSE REVOLUTION
Thank you, Amethyst Review! 🤗
Reclamation
A stretch of river he paddles
smothers from impenetrable vines
spiky buds of the invasive hops stare
from the brisling mats of leaves
hungry alien intruders
ravage, over run
steal sun, suffocate, shroud
saplings and wildflowers
with dense tangles. Turbulent
flood waters thrust
into the dense plumage
with violent twists, wrench
the miscreant from the banks
there lays bare a pristine meadow
disrobed of a weighted corset
she gasps
catches her breath
from shock of sun
sparkles in her wet dirt, saplings emerge
with curious caution
dance with daisy fleabane,
ragwort, lush grass
depleted deer tread lightly
on her floral spring frock.
.
Barbara Leonhard is a writer, poet, and blogger at Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver. Her podcast Poetry: The Memoir of the Soul explores universal themes such as Grief, Kindness, and Presence. She taught writing for many years at the University of Missouri and is the author of
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