Petals dizzy
Curled,
Whirled,
Flowers budded,
Tightly furled.
Petals soft as silk,
Aromas sing,
Memories of bees —
Brought to my knees,
Longing for spring.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: This is dedicated to florists and flowers growers everywhere, who give those of us in snow clogged Northern states the illusion of spring for a few moments of zing. I’m not going to be on-line much for about a week. I’ll be out of town at a children’s writer’s conference. 🙂 Have a great week!
Meet our snow creature: Snowtoro!
Snowtoro was inspired by Totoro, a movie by Hayao Miyasaki and Studio Ghibli. If you haven’t seen it, you’ve missed a gem. Two girls meet a big fluffy, teddy bear of a forest creature — the totoro. When the younger one disappears, Totoro helps the older girl search for her. You can watch the trailer here. Even two-year olds love this movie. Here is a Haiku in honor of a great film and my kids abiding love for it:
white tongue tastes
snowflakes drenched in freezing rain
Snowtoro smiles
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: Another big storm is blowing through our area tomorrow with 12 inches of snow and freezing rain forecast. Another snow day and more sledding. Woo-hoo!
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.
Here is the bench before the Nor’easter,
And where is the bench now?
Now you see it, now you don’t!
Mother Nature’s sleight of hand
Is more magical than any of man.
What could be hiding under there?
Perhaps a family of icy hedgehogs
And a passing brownie sipping chai.
Under the bench, they stop to say Hi,
Peeking out at other passers-by.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: New England was blessed with over two feet of snow in 24 hours and two snow days! We shoveled four times. We went sledding twice. We had one epic snowball battle. We drank hot chocolate with friends. We had a weekend in the middle of the week! Stay warm! 🙂 School is on again tomorrow.
The tree’s snow cloak drags the ground
Until the snow falls, wind-downed.
Released branch springs up with a shiver,
Like a dog, with a shake and quiver,
Rising from its long, low bend,
To the Snow Queen, its lady friend.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Snow in the air,
Snow on the ground,
More in my hair,
Falls all around!
Snowballs packed tight,
Kids laughing and hiding,
Forts left, ice castles right
Tiny tots slipping and sliding.
Tongue sticks out far,
Nothing hits it, no fair!
A snowflake, like a star,
Lands coldly right there.
Ah, how we love the snow,
Sledding, flopping, tromping,
Love when the drifts flow,
Plowing, tunneling, stomping.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
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.)
Pawn lost at the dawn,
Blacks carrion crows
Checkmate at the close,
Victory now seems small:
King mourns White Queen’s fall.
Perhaps the price of war
Is too high after all.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: The game of chess is a bloodless battle to the eventual doom of an opponent. Do you play? Are you ruthless? Are you willing to sacrifice your queen?
One of the very best reasons for having children
Is to be reminded of the incomparable joys of a snow day.
Cold, gray day with
Snow on the way.
Tiny flakes fall,
Hardly any at all.
Just a tease,
Tickling trees.
Children haunted:
Snow day wanted.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Notes: I read this to my son. He sadly shook his head and said: “I don’t think we’re going to get a snow day this year.” Poor guy, we’ve had almost no snow. No sledding, no snow shoeing and no snowmen! On a more prosaic note, I have just spent days updating all my contents pages, poetry, flash fiction, haiku and haibun. I’m still emotional thinking of the many outrageously wonderful compliments left, which make me blush to read the reviews on the contents pages. You might see yourself quoted there. 😉 Thank you all for reading and commenting. I know how busy you are, and I am deeply moved and appreciative!! You’ve restored my ego to almost life-sized just in time for attending a writer’s conference in NYC! I’ll be preparing for that in the next few weeks. Remember the magic! Warmly, Brenda
I walk through my own personal cloud of crystalline breath. The nighttime is silent but for the thuds of snow falling from branches. The modern world disappears, and even the family van is a slumbering dragon. I pace the silent woods, twilight falling to full dark quickly.
ice chokes the pond
water reflects the dark sky
even my breath stills
I return to a long-ago winter. Lacy snowflakes fall all night. School is cancelled. Frost stars seal the window glass. I don three layers of clothes before pushing through drifts over my head. I forge new pathways. I enter an icy, secret world with caves, trolls, mountains and a snow queen.
hiding from monsters
across alien frozen worlds
in the quiet, is me
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: This is a haibun, a Japanese form of writing, alternating prose and poetry, in this case, haiku. It has many rules. It should be present tense. The haiku should be without punctuation, except where a stop is indicated by a comma. Basho made this form famous.
Snowflakes,
Frost snakes
Down the pane
Blurring the lane.
Cold rattles,
TV prattles,
Frozen thought:
What was sought
By crazy terrorists
Killing cartoonists?
The earth may still turn
But do what we learn?
Did they feel pain and rage?
Want a world stage?
But don’t praise god —
Your reasoning is flawed.
Revenge, blood, death,
Stop and take a breath.
Remember joy and love,
They come from above.
Embrace life and creation
And stop the devastation.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: Je suis Charlie. I am Charlie. I stand with free press and with peace through love of differences. I honor all religions, and my heart weeps for all the Jews who feel fear, all the Christians who feel under attack, all the muslims who don’t agree with the actions of terrorists, and all the other religions who feel sorrow. I feel sorrow at having to explain these events to children and immense sadness for the families of victims. No matter your beliefs, please help me speak out against violence and terror.
Winter Queen Snow-White,
Reigning over gardens past,
Spreading seeds near and far:
Tiny spin-drift wind-sailing
Sprites, tiny bits of last year,
Carried through cold to the next,
Come fill my garden with purple,
Amber and russet possibility.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Friendly Fairy Tales 