duchesses abloom
raspberry silk smiles
radiant, dancing
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: Here’s a haiku in honor of the UK’s new Duchess of Cambridge and to celebrate May flowers. My son’s foot is healing, and he is proud that the grass seed he planted on Earth Day has sprouted already. He may be in pain, but he has a green thumb. And a mom who watered the seeds. 😉 This haiku is also another Poetry Friday offering, hosted this week by Today’s Little Ditty.
IN FLIGHT
by Jennifer K. Sweeney
The Himalayan legend says
there are beautiful white birds
that live completely in flight.
They are born in the air,
must learn to fly before falling
and die also in their flying.
Click here to read the rest of In Flight.
I remember flight,
Rush of cold air,
Banking, turning,
Pulsing with life.
I was a bird,
Gliding on thermals,
Spreading my wings,
Lighter than air.
I remember falling,
Disconnected, unsure,
Turning and spinning,
Landing too soon.
Now I dream:
I fly, rising, soaring,
Lingering in trees,
Connected and warm.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: This feather is from a blue jay, and it was 6-7 inches long. Welcome to a new Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Elementary Dear Reader.
The yellowest green
Is the daffodil,
One day away from
Letting yellow spill.
What makes the flower
Pick that day to bloom?
The sun’s the power!
And it makes bees zoom.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: My van is mobile, my son’s foot is mending and my novel is submitted. Fingers crossed. Maybe my eyes, too. This poem is to celebrate Poetry Friday, and the warm breeze it’s brought into my life, perfumed with rich words. This week is hosted by Robyn Hood Black, thank you!!
Spring a ling!
Hear spring sing;
Flower bells ring:
Spring a ling!
Spring a ling!
Spring a ling!
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: We’re hearing it! A few days above 50 and a vast flood of snow melt is all the encouragement these little hardy crocuses needed. My lucky neighbor already has blooms. I hope you’re enjoying National Poetry Month. I am participating in Poetry Friday, organized by Kidlitosphere Central and hosted this week by Laura Purdie Salas at Writing the World for Kids. She has lots of great tips for reading poetry to kids.
Oak leaf rimed,
Bleached winter white,
Stark skeleton aglow.
A bit of starlight,
Its light grown white,
A transient in the universe,
The writing is plain:
An early calling card
Of Lady Spring’s visit.
Perhaps I’ll pour the tea,
Remembering heat,
Wishing for sunlight.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: I’ll lift my teacup in a toast to Lady Spring, whose velvety green cloak will swirl around us any day. And I’ll dedicate this ghostly post to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by a wonderful children’s poet, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, at her blog, The Poem Farm. It’s National Poetry Month, and the kidlitosphere is lit by the radiance of many special events, some listed by Jama, the Poetry Potentate. If you like poetry, you can dine until sated this month!
pink morning light
gilds young trees, knee-deep in ice
thousands of diamonds
break light into rainbows,
blinding me to spring
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: Tanka is defined in Oak Leak Tanka. This photograph was taken this spring. You can compare it to a picture taken last winter of the same trees in Five Brothers Tanka. This poem is in honor of Poetry Friday, hosted this week by Check it Out.
And above all, watch with glittering eyes
the whole world around you because the greatest secrets
are always hidden in the most unlikely places.
Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.
— Roald Dahl (Minpins, 1991)
Drip,
Rain
Drop
Plops,
Spring will come
With black mud, bees
And crocuses beneath trees.
Baby robins will scatter shells.
Fairies will chant vernal spells.
Birds will sing madrigals at dawn
To wood violets blooming on the lawn.
Foxglove’s speckled trumpets will play
With snowdrops and magnolias in May.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Ours shall be the gypsy winding
Of the path with violets blue,
Ours at last the wizard finding
Of the land where dreams come true.
— Lucy Maud Montgomery (from Spring Song)
Note: My poem, Spring Magic is a concrete poem, taking the shape of a drooping tulip or possibly a lily of the valley bell as suggested by Matt Forrest Ersenwine. Thanks, Matt! Happy Spring! This post is an ode to Spring in honor of the Vernal Equinox which is at 6:45 p.m. here on March 20, 2015. And a happy coincidence, also in honor of Poetry Friday, hosted this week by Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core who shared a wonderful original poem for World Folk Tales and Fables Week. I hope you have time to visit her. The photographs were all taken last spring — this year the ground is covered by a knee-deep sea of receding white ice.
Thwomp-Boom, ice dams fall.
Birds sing as sunshine strengthens.
Drip, drip, icicle lengthens;
When will the snow go?
Canada Geese waddle into traffic,
Honking: Where’s the ground?
Where can food be found?
When will the snow go?
Cars honk back; engines roar.
Traffic stalls and goggles at geese.
Is it spring despite me wearing fleece?
When will the snow go?
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
This Poetry Friday is wrangled by Author Amok. May your inner child be joyful this weekend!
Note: I was driving back from the pediatrician with my son, who clonked his head on the ice Sunday night (he has a mild concussion and will be fine), when two prosperous-looking Canada Geese waddled right across the busy road. The sight of them in the road is unusual, they generally congregate on grassy lawns. It reminded me that the wild things are even more inconvenienced by the remaining mountains of snow than I am. And that spring is nearly here!! Woo-hoo! The geese have returned! Given I was driving, I didn’t get a picture of them.
I have seen from my window
the fiesta of sunset in the distant mountain tops.
Sometimes a piece of sun
burned like a coin in my hand.
— Pablo Neruda, from Clenched Soul
Black-fingered trees
Yearn to touch the sky’s palette
Aglow with sunset
Icy winter dormancy
Kindled by sunset passion
This Tanka poem was inspired by Valentine’s Day, sunsets and Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Merely Day by Day. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Snow
Flakes fall
On Rhodie,
Making leaves droop.
Pulse slows, goes dormant,
Warm heart retreats in,
Waiting for summer thaw.
Sees children building snowmen:
Hears laughter bloom like spring time.
Small girl shrieks as boots fill with snow.
An icy silence falls as doors slam.
The snowman’s crooked smile: winter joy.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: This poem is an Etheree, increasing by one syllable in each line, with a syllable count from one to ten. This poem is to connect with Poetry Friday. This week, the meme is hosted by These 4 Corners.
held in my petals
memories of last summer
slumber here on ice
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: This haiku is my contribution to a long-standing meme, Poetry Friday, which is organized by Kidlitosphere Central and hosted by various bloggers, around the web. I am very excited to participate for the first time. This week you can visit A Teaching Life and see links to the poetry. Some of my friends write kids poetry. If you do, you should check this out. They publish anthologies of the Poetry Friday offerings periodically, and I have it on good authority that they actually PAY for the use of the poem!!! LOL What a concept! (Okay, it’s not going to make me rich, but hey, a dinner out… maybe.)
Friendly Fairy Tales 