when words dance and
flowers are like sunshine,
it must be spring
Copyright 2019 Brenda Davis Harsham Continue reading
Tag Archives: daffodils
Fairy King
Mantled in green and crimson,
Still stiff with winter’s ice,
Silent Fairy King is courted
By ladies in yellow and white.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: This poem was inspired by the burgeoning of spring, bolstered by a spring break spent in the garden rather than in DC as planned. I planted pansies, ranunculus, dahlias, elephant ears, butter lettuce, wildfire lettuce and parsley. I noticed the bunnies had nibbled some of my tulips, but they will probably prefer the lettuce. This poem is posted also in honor of Poetry Friday, thanks to No Water River, the picture book and poetry place. If you visit Renee at No Water River, she explains Poetry Friday. I hope you’ll visit her if you like kids poetry.
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
Copyright 2014 Brenda Davis Harsham
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
Longing for Daffodils
In Winter, I long
for color and flowers.
In Spring, I yearn
For Wordsworth.
Copyright 2014 Brenda Davis Harsham
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
_______________________________________
Do you have a magic moment that fills your heart with joy at the memory? I will share one of mine with you. Years before we had kids, my husband and I shared papaya, salmon and pineapple sushi, on a balcony overlooking the pool at the Kauai Marriott Resort, which was on the ocean. If you want to see what it looked like, the Marriott site has lots of pictures. The sushi was the best I had ever tasted. I have many more, too, and I hope you do, too.
Warmly, Brenda
References:
The Queen’s Ruin
Liam took a walking tour with his parents through Shrewsbury Castle gardens. On the edge of the Severn River, a tour guide named Julia waved Liam’s group into a ruin with broken columns and wall fragments, some with windows still framing the soft Shropshire sunshine.
“This is the Queen’s Ruin,” said Julia, the tour guide. “Queen Maud and her cousin Stephen battled for the throne of England. At one point, Queen Maud is said to have taken refuge here, and after she left, Stephen pulled it to the ground, leaving only ruins. This statue in the flowers is said to be of Queen Maud as a young woman, descended of kings, married to a king and mother to a king.”
Liam looked at the statue for long minutes as the rest of the tour continued on to the archways of blooming wisteria. She looked so peaceful there in the shadows of the lilacs. Unfortunately, both arms were broken off of the white marble. Liam was sad to see her damaged.
Friendly Fairy Tales 