Category: Poetry
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Sin-Eaters
A sin-eater is someone paid to eat a small ritualistic meal representing the sins of the deceased. By doing so, the person takes on those sins. What happens to this diner? Does s/he become a vessel containing the sins of the departed, who can now enter heaven cleansed of wrongdoing?…
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It’s All about Death, Really
The gap between compassion and surrender is love’s darkest, deepest region. Orhan Pamuk, The Museum of InnocenceI am ready to shed the old clothes,the tatters that hang off my heart that I thought held some comfort but that no longer fit me.I lay them out for display. Touch each one,…
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“Payne Comes for Tea”
Nolcha Fox and I wrote this poem together. Our collaborations turned into Too Much Fun To Be Legal (Garden of Neuro Publishing, 2024). This feels like a good time for some light-hearted words.Payne Comes for TeaUninvited again.Slaps my ailing knee.“How’s it goin’?Not up and about yet?How ‘bout a jog around…
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“The Bittersweet”: A World Traveler
My gratitude to Irma Kurti for publishing her translation of my poem “The Bittersweet” into Albanian for Gazeta Destinacione. Follow this link to see her translation. https://gazetadestinacioni.al/barbara-harris-leonhard-shba-perktheu-irma-kurti/ The BittersweetA leaf dances in midairwithout falling.What holds it—A tiny threadof a spider’s weaving?Am I suspendedby my dizzy, twirling? Uncertainty and fear?Or is…
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“Instituto Terra” is up on Chewers by Masticadores!
Thank you, Editor Nolcha Fox, for publishing my poem! Here is the note about the poem, which first appeared on Silver Birch Press. Because of our environmental crisis, I wanted to give this poem more visibility. The poem was inspired by the story of a couple in Brazil who regrew…
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On Father’s Day 2025
Sunday, June 15, was a quiet day. Because I wanted to find a biography written by some relatives about my paternal great grandmother, whom we called Sweet Grandma, I was rifling through papers and came upon letters from my father. One read so much like a poem that I had…
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AI Robots Call Foul! Want Life Insurance!
Do we abuse AI robots? If there is danger, who is sent to do the job? Not the biologicals, who may lose their lives trying to rescue fallen soldiers, construct Martian habitats, defend Earth from asteroids heading our way, and explore booby-trapped spaces. Like the incredible tomb of Emperor Qin…
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Barb’s Wordy Blurbs: “Encore: A Collection of Poetry” by Zaneta Varnado Johns
Zaneta Varnado Johns’ book, “Encore: A Collection of Poetry”, is a book for the soul of humanity. As I read the poems, I felt my heart open and expand. She begins in Part One with “Whispers and Romances”, which celebrates sensual love and the sense of love as it manifests…
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Love Ain’t for Sissies: AI Robots Little Sophia and Barbie Go At It
In The Lost Book of Zeroth, AI Robots Little Sophia (Little Spark) and Barbie compete over the attention for the human they share, Eliza. Little Sophia is Eliza’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) teacher. Eliza’s parents purchased AI Robot Barbie as a Christmas gift for Eliza. Little Sophia expresses…
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Little Squirrel is Getting Around! 🐿️
My gratitude to Irma Kurti for making this publication of “A Squirrel’s Front Teeth Never Stop Growing” possible in Quick World News in Kosovo. Run, Little Squirrel, run quickly! The poem is a double haibun. You may have seen it posted on my blog because it won Publication of the…