magical dwarf hides
white duvet cannot warm him
cold makes stone from bone
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
Tag Archives: friendly fairy tale
December Haiku
shivering tree toes
snowflake blanket melts in sun
dogs with cold, wet feet
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
Fairy Ball Fibonacci Poem
Shh!
Hide,
Fairies!
Hold fans high
Pretend we’re cabbage,
Think ornamental vegetable!
No more chorus line once music stops and fae-folk hide.
Slowly, as night dons its purple, starry cloak, the fae ball resumes, with pipe, fife and song.
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: A Fibonacci Poem is one in which each succeeding line is equal in syllable length to the syllable length of the preceding two lines added together, or one, one, two, three, five, eight, thirteen, twenty-one, thirty-four, etc.
Frosty Sparkles Haiku
temperatures drop
white sparkles rim grass and leaf
frost vipers circle
Reflections Haībun
Too often, I look only for myself in reflections. I let the eyes of my friends and family tell me who I am. I check my hair or clothes in mirrors, critically noting imperfections, thinking about who I am on the surface.
Then a magical moment happened, standing on a bridge, water flowing musically below. My down coat was tightly zipped against the chill. Leaf mold scent mingled with the fragrance of coming snow. I looked down, and I didn’t see myself at all. Instead I saw the whole world reflected there, sky, clouds, trees, birds. My own self-critical thoughts stilled, and I heard the trees give windy sighs, their summer burdens discarded, in the embrace of winter dreams.
burdens lift away
self lost in the larger world
beauty calms, renews
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
Inspired by the weekly Haībun challenge, with the prompt of water.
Beautiful Berries Haiku
heavy jeweled branches
offerings for the fairies
delightful berries
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
Happy Thanksgivukkah Haībun
Turkey with Yarmulke
The leaves have fallen, and New England has weathered its first winter storm, with howling winds and temperatures 20 below freezing. We are all preparing to celebrate the gateway to winter, thankful for shelter, food and good company. This year our Thanksgiving feast will have an added spice, a warming blanket of older meaning.
Whatever you celebrate this November 28, Jews across the United States will be celebrating Thanksgivukkah with culinary imagination and joyful lighting of candles to celebrate the festival of lights.
festival of lights
pumpkin bisque, apple latkes
rarely converging
Some rabbinical sources have calculated the next convergence of Thanksgiving and Hanukkah will not be for 70,000 years!! Even our trees may not survive that long. But, according to the New York Times, “the last time the two holidays overlapped was in 1918, when Jews lit one menorah candle on Thanksgiving night, and it won’t happen again until Nov. 27, 2070.” Others chime in with other dates!
Mathematicians disagree with both the religious sources and the New York Times, and they assert this particular convergence has never happened before (except maybe once in 1888 before they made Thanksgiving the 4th Thursday of November) and may never happen again, and that’s because Hanukkah is a day earlier than the New York Times article provides, given that the first day will be celebrated the night before Thanksgiving. That means Hanukkah starts before Thanksgiving! Whew!
once in a lifetime
celebrate the convergence
remember the past
This fairy tale writer doesn’t know who to believe, the rabbis, the New York Times or the mathematicians. Whether you believe it will happen again in 57 years or maybe never, why not light some candles, roast some turkey with challah stuffing, fry up some potato pancakes, and celebrate a rarer occurrence than a comet sighting or a lunar eclipse.
I may not live long enough to see the next round of Yarmulke-wearing Turkeys (especially if it never happens again), but if I do, what a fairy tale that would be. We should all be so lucky!
Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Turkey Day, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Thanksgivukkah! Each year after this, as the leaves flame up and fall, crisped and brown, I will remember this special gateway to winter, the first Thanksgiving of my blogging days.
A few recipe ideas for a creative Thanksgiving and Hanukkah feast:
Turkey with Pomegranate and Walnuts
Pumpkin and Saffron Soup
Cheddar cheese mashed potatoes
Apple Latkes
cooking for hours
table groans with fall delights
eaten in minutes
Warmly, Brenda
Note: a haībun is prose followed by a poem, often a haiku. Sometimes haiku or other poems are also used as transitions between paragraphs. Usually I write from a prompt, and I always enjoy that, but this week I wanted to celebrate outside the prompt. I may go back and write another haībun for the prompt, if I can squeeze out the time.
Awarded Blog of the Year Among Other Blessings!!
I never imagined the response I have gotten to my fairy tales, here on Friendly Fairy Tales. I originally put up stories for family to be able to read them without my providing everyone copies. (I have a BIG family.)
The warmth of community I have found has been a fairy tale come true for me. I love all the comments. I love hearing that others love fairy tales, and even more, that others love my stories. And all the awards make me happy, more on that below…
Thanks to everyone who visits, who likes, who comments or even just enjoys my stories, my photographs and my poetry. For all of you, I have made an underwater visual fairy tale (a new video!!), called Fairy Fish Tails, which has an original score composed by my oldest son.
The video was a long time in the works, and as a result, I have been slow to pass along thanks for awards, but here goes:
Red Mushroom Mansion
Used Courtesy of Postaldeliveries
Maybelle had often admired the red mushrooms mansions, where she imagined only the very luckiest of fae could live. She liked to imagine the quiet with only a few neighbors. She had been living in a fungus highrise since she was born, surrounded by constant noise and banter.
Sylphanya, her sprite-mother, was hardly ever home and wanted different things than Maybelle. Her mother cared only for painting autumn leaves whereas Maybelle was drawn to water blossoms. Her mother seemed to like having a hundred neighbors, singing out happy hellos to everyone.
Maybelle knew the other fae-children thought she was a bit odd. Her near-neighbor Jamus called her a loner that morning because she hardly ever joined him and his sister, Dolpha, for nectar in the berry bar.
Maybelle was sad all day, not even the rainbow tints of a new lotus bloom cheered her. Maybelle decided to find her mother. Continue reading
Transformation Haiku
leaves nearly all down
limbs catch stars like fireflies
ermine cloak coming
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
Swinging
We need to hear young voices. I hope you enjoy this view of the world from a very young voice.
A Poem by A.H., age 4
When I’m swinging,
I’m bigger than Mommy and Daddy.
I’m bigger than the trees.
I’m bigger than the wood chips
And the playground.
I’m bigger than everything.
Copyright 2013 Friendly Fairy Tales
Icy Leaf Haiku
Too early for ice!
Breath comes in steam engine puffs
Leaf caught by winter
Copyright 2013 Brenda Davis Harsham
Friendly Fairy Tales 