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May 15, 2014

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Heart of Hearts

Summer is an herbalist and ethnobotanist, and a peace lover of fairies and forests. I hope you enjoy her whimsy here. Warmly, Brenda

serendipityherbals

Some of us have Hearts inside of us, and some have Hearts outside of us. I am a peculiar one, I was born with a beautiful large heart inside, and stamped on the outside near my chest area, God stamped me with a second Heart, a Red Heart Birthmark!

Why and wherefore these marvelous, these beautiful happenings? I’ve always pondered.

In my pondering, in Outside Heart so Large, so Big, and so Magnificent, I have been found playing and conversing with the Winged Fairies today. For the Fairies need to rest their busy wings here and there, and clutch a home polished Moonstone to take a sip of pure, cool water. This allows them the little rest needed before playing and mixing more pollen, kissing the herbs, the plants of Heart Garden.

It is always lovely to give little Winged Beings a place to hide, rest, eat and drink, put…

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Brenda Davis Harsham

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May 15, 2014

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Tales for Kids of All Ages

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Serenity

Esther of Hortus Closus has written a magical poem and paired it with beautiful art. I hope you enjoy it! Cheers, Brenda

Hortus Closus

Art by Hiliuyun-Liuyun

I’m not serene
I wait news from the land of
fairies, of legends.

The wind sings, silence wraps me,
My soul becomes a lotus.

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Brenda Davis Harsham

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May 15, 2014

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Photography, Poetry

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Forsythia Fairy Path

Forsythia: golden bells curving overhead;
A green path winds through the hedge.
I step under the archway and stop dead.
A forsythia fairy flutters, about to fledge.

The air is filled with crystalline shine,
And a magic gale forces me backward.
I catch a glimpse of the fairy in flight, sublime.
Then the path is empty; my tale fractured.

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Brenda Davis Harsham

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May 13, 2014

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Photography, Poetry

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75 Comments

Charming Ladies Haiku

grand duchesses
charming ladies in waiting
tulips for the queen

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Brenda Davis Harsham

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May 12, 2014

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Photography, Poetry

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White Wakerobin: Alliterative Haiku

found in a forest
longing for large, long-tongued bees
tranquil trillium

Note: This haiku is Alliterative, which means that its words start with the same letter.

Reference: https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/species/trillium/grandiflorum/

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Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

May 10, 2014

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Holiday, Poetry, Tales for Kids of All Ages

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Nature’s Joy for Moms

Plugged into pretty pink,
Powered on, pumped and plumped,
Pleased to hear parties planned.

Just jazzed by joy,
Jumping for color,
Jogging my memory.

Many other happy springs:
Mingled colors and aromas,
Mother’s Day memories.

Note: This post is dedicated to all moms, full-time, part-time, for-all-time moms. Moms near, moms far, moms always in the heart, whatever the name: Mom, Mum, Mam, Mama, Mommy, Step-Mom, Ma, Mamasita, Mother. Please let me know other names for Moms, and I will add them here. Much love to all Moms!!

Happy Mother’s Day to these special moms:

Sue Ann, Fairport, New York (Get Well Soon and come home from the hospital, too!!)
Jessie, Palm Springs, California
Jo Anne, Los Angeles, California
Mary, Bedford, Massachusetts
Cathryn, Burlington, Massachusetts
Julie, Billerica, Massachusetts
Jennie, Billerica, Massachusetts
Mickey, Syracuse, New York
Susan, Fairport, New York
Ellen, Newton, Massachusetts
Donna, Machias, Maine
Elizabeth, or Betty, Matias, New York (and Happy Early Birthday, too!!)

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Brenda Davis Harsham

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May 8, 2014

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Photography, Poetry

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Fairy Fiddlehead Haibun

[Sh]e was a poet; and they are never exactly grown-up.
― J.M. Barrie

Walking in the woods today, I listened for the music of the wind. I heard the crescendo of growing things, and a soft decrescendo of falling magnolia petals. Trees in leaf harmonized with delicious sap running, after a long frozen winter. Squirrel feet danced so fast, they seemed to be touching only clouds. Bees, drunk with plentiful nectar, wobbled in flight. Landing on pear blossoms, the bees turned round as though tumbling down hillsides, spinning, dizzy, buzzy.

stretching straight sunshine-ward
furled fairy fiddlehead,
music makes me merry

Note: A haibun is prose followed by poetry, often a haiku. If any of my other haibun-writing friends are parched from a reduction in prompts, feel free to take my picture or the quote as a prompt, and write your own haibun, just please give my name as the photographer. Ping me or leave a comment here, and I will be happy to read it! I don’t know how to do the linky, so I can’t offer that. The quote was originally “He” not “[Sh]e” so it can be either way.

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Brenda Davis Harsham

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May 8, 2014

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Photography, Poetry

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Clarity Pyramid: FAE

FAE
Fairy
Magical

Winged joy in child’s heart
Connected to nature
Hides in imagination

“For to have faith is to have wings.”

Note: The quote is from Peter Pan, by J. M. Barrie. This was inspired by Paint the World with Words, hey, Amreen, I hope you are feeling better soon!! (She apparently had a bad week or two.) A Clarity Pyramid is a poetic form with so many rules that I decided not to write one, right before one popped into my head in that mysterious way ideas have. I’ll set out the rules: 7 lines, increasing in syllable count, 1/2/3 then 5/6/7 culminating in an 8 syllable quotation. The title should be the one syllable line, bold and in all caps, and then the rest of the poem describes or elucidates the title.

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Brenda Davis Harsham

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May 8, 2014

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Photography, Poetry

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Sunset and the Bee

Bees gather nectar, frantic to finish tonight,
Before the ending day’s golden twilight
Has turned into black, stormy night.
The first spring blooms are key
For life of tree
And bee.

Note: My poem has six lines, with the rhyming pattern, AAABBB, and 12 syllables in the first line, and then decreasing by two syllables per line, until the last line, which has 2 syllables (or: 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2). I wanted to use a diminishing syllable count to parallel the dwindling of bees from colony collapse disorder. This poem is similar to a nonet, but the nonet has nine lines, with 9 syllables on the first line, and then it decreases by one syllable per line until the last line, which has one syllable.

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Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

May 5, 2014

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Flash Fiction, Humor, Photography, Poetry

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Flash Fiction: River Romance

The sun was setting, cherry blossoms perfumed the air, and Esme’s handsome boyfriend, Al, paddled at her side. His fine, green Mallard head feathers looked purple in the waning sunlight. She nibbled on bulrushes.

Nosy daffodils crowded round taking selfies. You’d think it was an award ceremony.

Esme would let nothing lessen the magic of the evening. There on the riverfront, she and Al sipped water laden with tasty seeds. The silvery twilight faded, and fairies flickered like fireflies. Al offered Esme a tasty tuber under the Three Birches. She sighed with pleasure.

Al raised his wings and drummed the water from happiness. Together they swam figures eights, intertwining their wakes, visible ripples of pleasure. Before Esme returned to her family’s nest on the far bank, her beak brushed Al’s farewell. A door had opened in her heart, perhaps Al would pass through one day.

sun sets on longings
solitary triangle of ripples
rushes bend in winds

Note: This is my farewell haibun dedicated to Al, but it’s fictional, so I called it a flash fiction in the title. Al has run the weekly Haibun Thinking prompt, which sadly has ended. I hope you don’t mind me making free with your moniker, Al! I am a bit late with my entry, but I was preparing for and attending a writer’s conference. I have to scale back my blogging in May. I will be rewriting my children’s chapter book. Wish me luck! My plan is to blog in the evenings if I have any energy. 🙂

References:

http://diet.yukozimo.com/what-do-mallard-ducks-eat/
http://www.ask.com/question/what-do-mallard-ducks-eat

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Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

May 3, 2014

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Photography, Poetry

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Ideas Blossom at Writer’s Conference

Ideas blossom with a sweet fragrance,
Opening wider with rhythmic cadence,
Each part of nature has its special time,
Thoughts spring musically into joyful rhyme.

Note: Here is some pink for ThinkingPink. This weekend, I am away at the New England Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators spring conference. Ideas are flowing, and I’m jazzed and inspired. If you aren’t a member of a writing organization and you have not yet been to a writer’s conference, I hope you’ll consider it. Not that WP isn’t great, but meeting people in person is powerful, too. I’ll be back next week, and hoping to catch up with everybody!

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Brenda Davis Harsham

Posted on

May 1, 2014

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Photography, Poetry

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31 Comments

May Queen

Sad May Queen and her court,
Drenched, washed by rain,
Cold droplets cascade off,
Heavy heads rise when
The torrent ceases, blue sky
Teases, clouds chase the wind.

Then state visits commence,
Foreign dignitaries hasten toward
The still glistening, but elegant
Tulip Magnolia Queen.
Bees kiss her hands, aquiver,
Trembling to touch her perfume.

A sensitive courtier
Drips tears onto the lawn.
Pink petals fall and
Lay like lotus blooms
On a glassy pond, quiet
Except for water dripping.