Author of Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir (EIF-Experiments in Fiction, 2022). Pushcart Nominated Poet 2022. Editor MasticadoresUSA.
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... Continue Reading →
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,... Continue Reading →
I have uploaded an episode featuring Walter Bargen to my poetry podcast, Poetry: The Memoir of the Soul. You can access it here. https://meelosmom.podbean.com/e/memoirs-of-walter-bargen/ This episode features poems by Walter Bargen, who is Missouri’s first poet laureate. I read from Days Like This Are Necessary: New & Selected Poems, Trouble Behind Glass Doors, and Pole... Continue Reading →
What is Your Story? Fellow poets, I would like to do a series of podcast episodes on your memoirs for my poetry podcast, Poetry: The Memoir of the Soul, which is found here. https://meelosmom.podbean.com/ Do you have a ... 1) personal life experience or 2) a concern about life today that you can describe in... Continue Reading →
I finally have a new episode up on my poetry podcast, Poetry: The Memoir of the Soul. Even though I have gotten some poems published, I lost my focus and momentum with the podcasts because I felt waylaid by COVID-19. https://meelosmom.podbean.com/e/grief-and-race-unmasked/ In this podcast, produced on Juneteeth, (June 19th), 2020, I recognize and honor the... Continue Reading →
I notice that I haven't completed a poetry podcast since April 2. However, as you can see on my WordPress blog, I have done some publishing. It seemed easier to publish in on line sites than on my own poetry podcast in my own voice. I have to admit, everything of late has stunned me.... Continue Reading →
Phoebe, MD:Medicine + Poetry Has just published the first part of an article I wrote on my infertility caused by Diethylstilbestrol, or DES. Although this drug is no longer prescribed to pregnant women to prevent miscarriages, it has been shown that this drug affected not only daughters and sons born between 1941 and 1971 but also their children. This is my story as a DES Daughter.
By Barbara Leonhard | Featured Contributor
As we grow and develop, we learn how to identify with many labels or roles, such as daughter/son, aunt/uncle, mother/father, and grandmother/grandfather, to name a few. It seems as though our stories are written before we are born to conform to these labels. In a way, these roles become rituals that comfort us as we agree to them and even expect our lives to go “as planned” based on our social codes and blueprints for survival.
I know I certainly expected my life to unfold much like my mother’s life did with marriage and family. She had seven children, and being the second oldest and oldest girl, I was able to help with all the babies she had. It never occurred to me that I would never be able to have my own children. Little did I know that my helping her at…
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The final section of my article on measles encephalitis published by phoebemd.com. Thank you, Phoebe!
By Barbara Leonhard | Featured Contributor
Part 1 – Hope Was Not a Loss: A Story About Measles Encephalitis
Part 2 – Learning How to Walk Again: Barbara’s Story
Back in 1957, the year I almost died from the measles, my parents—unlike the parents of today—did not have to face the choice of vaccination, because there was no vaccine in existence (it wasn’t introduced until several years later, in 1963).
Therefore, it was important for me to share my experience with this condition because of the great controversy that currently exists over vaccines in general, and particularly the measles vaccine. Far too many children are not getting vaccinated against measles and other diseases owing to perceived risks, so now measles has returned as a virulent threat worldwide.
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Phoebemd.com published the second part of my article on recovering fully from measles encephalitis. The link to Part 1 is provided. The article is based on one of my poetry podcasts on Poetry: The Memoir of the Soul found at meelosmom.podbean.com.
By Barbara Leonhard | Featured Contributor
[Part 1 – Hope Was Not a Loss: A Story About Measles Encephalitis]
My experience with measles encephalitis taught me a great deal. The greatest realization was that I could change my destiny. I had every reason to remain in the wheelchair because of the attention, sympathy, and love that not only I but also my parents received because of their poor little girl. But the attention from others could not offset the loneliness, the feelings of being diminutive and helpless, and the boredom.
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Phoebemd.com is publishing a series of articles based on another poetry podcast I did on Podbean. You have seen this story of mine before, and I will tell it until I am blue in the face if it saves lives. Kids need protection – we all do – from the measles.
By Barbara Leonhard | Featured Health Story
In this article, I would like to share my story of how an illness I suffered as a child affected me. Particularly with the climate of today, I hope this will help inform people of the consequences that can develop in young children who are at risk of getting certain illnesses.
It was the summer of 1957, and it seemed to have happened all at once, where I turned from an active six-year-old girl to a helpless baby overnight. At that time, my family was living in Lewistown, Montana, where my dad was a Presbyterian minister. Mom was at home with three children, aged seven to four. That summer, all three of us contracted measles. But while my siblings’ illnesses took a more benign course, I developed a life-threatening complication: measles encephalitis—a serious and potentially fatal inflammation of the brain…
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Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver 