garden fireworks,
summer itself celebrates
in red, white and blue
Copyright 2021 Brenda Davis Harsham
Happy 4th!
Tag Archives: Family
The Darkest Month
short, dark days
let the fairy lights shine,
long and bright
Copyright 2020 Brenda Davis Harsham Continue reading
Season of Thanks
Thankful for family,
the four who stay with me
despite this year of separations. Continue reading
Ode to Photography
Time,
present and past.
Frozen moments,
remembered and forgotten.
Beauty,
ordinary and extraordinary.
Photographic power
reveals in light and dark
what my mother looked like as
a young girl,
or my father as
he welcomed me to the world,
or myself
as I smiled between
brother and sister
whose faces are only visible
in black and white now.
Lost faces, missed warmth, people
linger in shades, lines, and shapes,
like hieroglyphics of the past.
Copyright 2020 Brenda Davis Harsham
Notes: For World Photography Day today, I offer this ode, in gratitude for how concrete my memories are, of times past.
Farmers’ Market
remembering peaches,
my daughter’s ice cream cone
melted too fast
Copyright 2018 Brenda Davis Harsham Continue reading
Thanks for Flowers
Thanks for sunshine,
thanks for flowers,
thanks for snow days
and rain showers. Continue reading
On Family Summers
cheek by jowl
close at hand
neck and neck
connected Continue reading
A Book by the Brook — Meet My Family!
Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
— William Shakespeare
Meet my Family! has adorable baby animals comparing notes on families. A raccoon kit grows up with a single-mom but a titi monkey hangs out with his dad. Swans have both parents and sea turtles have none. Laysan albatross chicks have two moms and chinstrap penguin chicks have two dads. Any kind of family unit you can imagine is normal to someone. Laura Purdie Salas wrote each animal baby a poem, and Stephanie Fizer Coleman brought them to life with her art. Continue reading
Sister Blue
Brother new, sister blue, I miss you.
Both lost at age four. Pain is evermore. Continue reading
Knots Haiku
interconnected
twisted up and intertwined
family
Copyright 2014 Brenda Davis Harsham
For Caregivers on Halloween: Grandmother Tree
Young maples trees blossom with hectic autumn color
Where they shelter under the high arching limbs
Of the deep-rooted grandmother tree.
Lovely, steady grandmother tree, slow to change,
Thick bark insulates and shields her from the cold,
Only showing golden and claret touches high up.
One by one, her bright leaves sigh and let go,
Lightly drifting down to caress her young for a moment.
Finally on the earth, their leaves mingle and embrace.
This Halloween, be like the grandmother tree.
Gather the rain, slow the wind, your roots entwined.
Let your children bloom and thrive, safe in your care.
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
Two Trees Haiku
Years long past we two,
Racing to grow fast, taller,
Siblings of the heart.
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
Friendly Fairy Tales 