winter scarred, care worn
gazing at eternity
lion without pride
remembers school vacation
three playful cubs squabbling
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: Hurray for vacation week! Tomorrow is the Boston marathon. Hope you all have a great week. Be healthy and be safe! Warmly, Brenda
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.
Catkin young,
Soft, sage and fuzzy,
Catkin brave,
No leaves are open,
Catkin cold,
Snow freezes toes.
Catkin grow!
Early sign of spring.
Catkin open:
When ripe but soon!
Catkin bloom:
Bring back the birds.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: Fingers crossed for spring here. Someday soon, we’ll have blooms here, and lots of spring-green shoots! For another catkin poem, see Catkin Fuzzy.
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!
Winter light dwindles to a pale sunset.
Sycamore bark peels in patches.
Ever on sentry duty, an eye on the horizon,
Glowing like a desert landscape,
The silent tree watches for
Spring, as winter melts away.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
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.
Copyright 2015 Brenda Davis Harsham
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.
With puddles and ice
Lining sidewalks and streets,
I remember leaves.
First, the tease of buds.
Then the unfurling of
New leaves, palest green,
Sidewalks awash in bud casings.
Leaves as backdrop to the blooming of
Dogwoods, tulip magnolias, pink cherries,
White pear and apple,
Mauve plum and citrine cassia.
Continue reading
pink November rose,
sweet-smelling fragrance rises
perfumes dreams of spring
Copyright 2014 Brenda Davis Harsham
Note: The snow has arrived, and we are eating chocolate-chip oat cookies and apple crisp. We taught the boys to play hearts, and having fun. I hope you are, too. Blessings to all!
Note 2: Unbelievably, I wrote this post yesterday, and I ran out of time to post it before other duties called. Then Michelle Marie wrote her post for me, that I reblogged today, and it’s as if she knew!! She is psychic!
Friendly Fairy Tales 