In Defense of Art

Rabbit in Rain, by bench

Some people see nature
and have to make art.
Sculpt, paint, illustrate,
immortalize and why?
To revisit that moment
to freeze it, never leave it.
We tinker, change
renew, remake, even fake.
If only time were a centrifuge,
spinning inward the best parts,
the sweetest, fleeting moments,
all together in the center
in one memory maelstrom
of magical moments.
The longest hug, the first kiss,
a safe landing from the scariest ride,
getting your first job,
the moment you finished a book that changed your life,
the scents of coffee, chocolate, pastries and tea
intertwined in your favorite cafe,
finishing your best work ever,
the night you laughed so hard you cried,
getting a parking space beside the door when you’re crazy late,
the number of stars visible on the darkest night,
and when you finally gave birth in an agony of warm liquid
only to have those new, moist eyes transfix you.
We could live there at the center
if we could fix to our walls the art of each moment.
Isn’t it worth trying?

Stone rabbit in rain

Note: We found the first rabbit, huddled in the rain, when we visited the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The poor thing seemed to roll his eyes at us, as if our taking a picture of him while he was cold and wet was the final indignity of a long, hungry day. We found the second rabbit in a garden. I was struck by how someone had seen the crack in him, and had just tucked a scarlet dahlia behind his ear. My children were young enough to wonder why we were at a Museum at all. I told them we were there to see art, and they looked at me blankly. I told them we were looking for secret doors and hidden rooms. Everywhere we went, we looked at the angle of things and speculated which painting might conceal a secret passage. These photographs remind me of that day. Let’s remember only good things, at least today. Maybe we can even take one of them and make it into art. Have a magical day! Warmly, Brenda

Vibrant all Year – WPC

Summer

raspberries

watermelon

Twin Pink Dahlias

hibiscus Continue reading

Tickle Proof Sharks

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If I had fins, I could swim
as sharks do, with a ripple
of my muscled back,
eyes open, never sleeping.
I’d never brush my teeth,
I’d grow new ones.
I’d smell my brothers coming
and swim the other way.
Even if they caught up,
my diamond-tooth skin
would be tickle proof.
I wouldn’t have to walk
down dark hallways,
my way would be lit
by phosphorescent fish.
I’d never have to sleep
alone in my room
with only a bear.
I’d stay on the move,
snacking between meals
whenever I choose.
Mom busses my cheek
and tucks me in.
My mouth tastes minty.
Bing-Bong, my bear,
fits into my elbow,
just right.
Sharks can’t dream
if they never sleep.
I wonder what
I’ll dream tonight.
I’ll be a shark in the sea!
I’m glad I’m me.

Copyright 2016 Brenda Davis Harsham

Note: For all the people who long to be sharks, may you swim in dreamland tonight. This poem is also for the kids’ literature folks at Poetry Friday. Thanks to this week’s host, Catherine, a talented teacher and poet, at Reading to the Core. Michelle Heidenrich Barnes at Today’s Little Ditty published a wonderful collection of poetry about nothing, and she even included a poem of mine that doesn’t appear on this website. If you want to submit your poem about nothing, you can visit her site for details. She enters all participants and commenters to win an autographed book, too!

Poetry Friday with kids

Holly Flower

Six holly leaves surrounding a pink stem

Petals fall away,
leaving the leaves
to spiral inward
like a rose in
full bloom,
laced with thorns but
with a stem too woody
for easy conquest.
The strawberry center
remembers the tease of bees.
The rain drains away,
leaving a few drops to
glisten like diamonds.
Whoever says winter
has no flowers
hasn’t seen the holly
as I have.

Note: I snapped this photo a few weeks ago before the first snow. I can’t help looking for flowers even in winter. Holly has been incorporated into many belief systems over the centuries. People planted holly as protection against thunder or to ward off witchcraft. The holly flowers in spring, and its four tiny petals form a cross, making it a common symbol for Christianity. It also represents the waning light of the year from Midsummer to Midwinter in the Celtic faith. May it help your imagination flower.

Juniper Jewels

Blue Juniper berries

Jewel-bright juniper berries
dangled like azure fairies
amidst needles unfurled,
seeking the eyes of every bird.
Berries stayed sugar sweet
until fermenting was complete.
Early spring, greedy bluejays
fell down tipsy over two days,
leaving feathers ruffled aft.
How the crows laughed.

Copyright 2016 Brenda Davis Harsham

Note: Some birds actually eat too many fermented berries and behave badly. Once I discovered that, I just had to write a poem about it. I also ran across a hilarious video of African animals overindulging on Marula fruit. A more serious poem about juniper berries is here. Have a great week!

Tree Song

Two Tree limbs reaching into the sky like arms

Even in winter,
with nary a leaf,
trees hold up the sky,
cut the wind and
frame the stars.
Tall maples sing our future,
lament our past.
First, morning pianissimo
swells to workday allegro
but quickens to andantino
after a tangerine sunset.
A mad tarantella makes
Saturdays ache with dance.
Stormy days, we hear brass
crescendo of crashing branches.
Trees measure our lives.
Each season has its movement,
winter’s pianissimo alternating
with icy crescendo:
concertos made from time,
measured into beauty,
the melody our breath,
the bass our heartbeat.
Woodwind chords are
refined by strings.
In the tree song,
we find time
and healing.

Copyright 2016 Brenda Davis Harsham

Note: I hope you are hearing music. Have a great week!

Dryad’s Eye

Thick oak in winter, trees brown and curled, with power lines running alongside, and the twisted trunk makes an eye

Sky gray as grave wrappings,
day dawns with the sullens.
Sodden leaf mold mingles
with the scent of coming snow.
Silent crows are drenched and dismal,
staring into the storm’s eye.
Oak leaves, brown and wilted,
make a damp chatter, as if they gossip.
Even the dryad shivers,
lissome and fair but cold in there.
She turns a shoulder to the icy wind
and hoodwinks the honest earth
into seeing a magic eye appear
gathering the light, shedding no tear.
The luminous gaze falls on the smallest
child, hopeful of seeing the first
snowflake spiral like a fallen star.
No frown can stay down in
the presence of wonder and hope.

Copyright 2016 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: A dryad is a nymph or goddess of a tree, often an oak. I make reference to a Sylvia Plath poem, On the Difficulty of Conjuring Up a Dryad, in which conjuring, Plath fails. Her “tree stays tree” no matter how she wrenches “obstinate bark and trunk/ To [her] sweet will”. Is she disappointed or triumphant when “no luminous shape/ Steps out radiant in limb, eye, lip,/ To hoodwink the honest earth which pointblank/ Spurns such fiction/ As nymphs”? She then observes that her cold vision “will have no counterfeit/ Palmed off on it.”  My imagination is of a different sort than hers today. Where my eye scans, I see magic. May you have a magical day.

Connection

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Connection,
reconnection,
lines entwined, aligned.
Squirrels use superhighways, and
information zips sideways.
Talk is the tendency when
winter’s in ascendancy.
Messages zing with arctic air.
Yet, summer’s there
in buds drowsing,
a promise of carousing
when summer’s scent
will rise from each branch, bent
from the memory of
winter’s icy love.
Seasons circle and dance,
hypnotic with romance.

Copyright 2016 Brenda Davis Harsham

Note: Are you finding the magic in the season? It’s harder in the winter doldrums, but keep your spirits up, the days are getting longer already! Cast your eyes on a Scottish stone circle formed from the earth’s oldest rock, and you’ll see winter romance, indeed, thanks to Seonaid at breathofgreenair.

Gray Magic

Stone Wall with phlox overhanging

Tinge of gray
on evergreen,
sparkly spray,
icy and clean,
fairy frost,
silver dance.
Summer’s lost
in hoary trance.
Winter sleep
casts its spell.
Blankets deep,
warm us well.

Copyright 2016 Brenda Davis Harsham

Notes:

Cold has tinged New England with silver. It’s the time of year to burrow under blankets or duvet. I hope you’re warm and cozy. My favorite thing to do this time of year is sleep late. What’s yours?

Happy Poetry Friday to all kid litters! Thanks to Tabatha Yeatts for hosting this week at the Opposite of Indifference. Thanks for reminding us that the “opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference.” ~ Elie Wiesel

Poetry Friday Badge

Circles

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Ball pits, portholes and memories. These are from 2005 when the Tall Ships visited Boston. I joined in this week when I noticed a cool photo by a new friend, a series of great photos by an old friend, and visited the prompt.

Penguin Patter

Penguins at New England Aquarium

January Jones met Mavis Jingle, and they nibbled salt herring. “My dear,” Mavis chirped, and January nodded. “Did you see Babseal out-swim Ozbrrr Orca?”

“I never did,” January exclaimed. “Tell all!”

“He did ten loop-de-loops, twenty corkscrews, forty hairpin turns then dropped like chum into an ice cave. Ozbrrr was so exhausted, he headed north with a terrible case of tail droop.”

“I would have loved to see that!” January sighed. “I saw Babseal out-swim a polar bear, an ice storm and an Antarctic ice crusher.”

“No you did not!”

“Indeed, I did, Ms. Mavis Know-it-all! Now I won’t tell you about it.”

“Oh, please, do tell. I’m sorry I doubted you.”

January nodded, looking most pleased. “Well, I would tell you, but I did make it up.” Then he dove into the water and swam away.

Copyright 2016 Brenda Davis Harsham

Note: Let tall tales commence in the new year. If you have some flash fiction you’d like to link up to me, please feel free. You can even copy my picture (just credit me) and try your own hand at writing some Penguin Patter. We can call it the Penguin Patter Prompt, maximum word count of 150. Anyone game? 🙂 Cheers, Brenda

Dragon Song

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Be careful in the New Year
for if you listen to dragon song,
you might find yourself burning.
You might need to fly and dance
or hear magic in the stars.
You might believe in kindness
and find friends in new places.
The crescendo casts a spell that
will make fortunes rise and set
love spinning like dust devils.
Be careful to keep your feet
solidly on the ground,
or you might hear fairy bells,
float over meadows, shake
hands with poppies, only to be
tickled by delphinium.
Dragons and fairies must be kept
in their place, in the toy chest,
lest the world tilt crazily.
Let others be dizzy with magic
or you might have to rethink
everything in your life.

Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham

Note: Happy New Year! 2016 is coming! I snapped the sea dragon photo at the New England Aquarium. If you’d like a dragon fairy tale, I offer the ice castle world of the Dragon and the Phoenix. We are busy frosting gingerbread trains, rolling beeswax candles and making lego Christmas trees. Enchiladas verdes and chilaquiles rojos are bubbling fragrantly in my oven, filling the whole house with the magic of cheese, turkey, tortillas and salsa. Wishing you joy, comfort, hugs and warmth!