Halcyon days 2017 issue 6

Halcyon Days - 2017 Issue 6

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Halcyon Days Issue 6 - 2017 CONTRIBUTORS Aicha Forever Still (11) Amber McCready Zen (12) | Bliss (12) Anita Leamy (E. A. Francis) Connecting the Great Blue (10) | The Hummingbird (9) | Lily of the One Day (9) Ann Christine Tabaka Blessings (14) | The Gift (14) | Haiku (19) Austin Brookner From the Book of Meditations (10) Burton L. Carlson Barefoot (18) Daniel Barbare The Clematis (15) Elizabeth Spencer Spragins Creation (15) Eva Chapman Beach Day (6) Gregg Dotoli Haiku (6) Ingrid Bruck Join the Descalzado (19) Janet McCann June Poem (16) Joan McNerney Shimmering (20) | This Morning (20) Ken Allan Dronsfield The Violent Sheen (4) | As Spanish Moss Sways (5) Footprints of Summer (5) | Strawberry Daiquiri and Silk Roses (13) Mary Ellen Gambutti Summer’s Reward (16) | Cottage Gardening for Today (21) Matthew Harrison The Yacht (7) Monique Berry Breathe (10) Vidya Vasudevan The Armchair View (24)

Halcyon Days Magazine ISSN: 2291-0255 Frequency: Quarterly Publisher | Designer: Monique Berry

Aicha

Amber McCready

Eva Chapman Ann Christine Tabaka

Elizabeth Spencer Spragins

Ingrid Bruck

Joan McNerney

Ken Allen Dronsfield

Mary E. Gambutti

Matthew Harrison

Monique Berry

Contact Info http://halcyondaysmagazine.blogspot.ca Twitter: @1websurfer monique.editor@gmail.com

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Austin Brookner

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The Violet Sheen

By Ken Allan Dronsfield A thrill for sure, to dance upon the Moors; during this summer moon on a June twilight.

Smells found there waft about the breeze; green pine needles and shimmering trees.

The gentle brook serenades a sweet view; winding through grasses as trout dine upon the masses of golden mayflies, as if on cue.

A peaceful radiance through a violet sheen.

A shy deer sneaks a peek from the forest, within the marsh, rabbits spar with the fox.

Winner shall reap life's illustrious conquest, another day gone upon this new equinox.

Of a mountain high; brilliant changing sky, listening to the geese upon a final glide.

A kingfisher hovers high, daring to dive, into the pond; a striped minnow is eyed.

Time spent here in this wondrous dream, of where we’ve been and what we’ve seen A simple slice of earth, within an expanse under the joyous dance in a Violet Sheen.

© Jiri Vondrous - stock.adobe.com

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As Spanish Moss Sways

By Ken Allan Dronsfield Porch swing moves in rhythm with gentle southern breezes.

Floorboards noisily creaking while rocking chairs dance.

The smells of honeysuckle and Granny's fried chicken wafting through the fields of peanut, cotton and okra.

Fond memories return of Sunday's after-the-service.

Friends and peach cobbler, end the day as twilight calls.

Ducks fly by heading west, into a tangerine colored sky.

Remembering warmer days as the Spanish Moss sways in gentle southern breezes cooler nights in a haunted fog chasing frogs and cat fishing in creeks and the old town pond.

Sweet southern style breathes memories in a Carolina heart. © James DeMers—Pixabay.com

Footprints of Summer

By Ken Allan Dronsfield Walking on pebbles in sands of white skyward watching as stars now peek moon glows from a blanket of clouds Nubble Light guides ships shore bound.

The inviting ocean of impassioned bliss salty smells and warm weather hugs admission, the price of a sand dollar seagulls following schools of baitfish.

Dogs running free and enjoying play evening’s first star, we make our wish. sky of twilight in red or purple colors serenity whispers in calming breezes.

Geese and ducks slowly moving north days are longer and nights a bit warmer footprints are now left upon the dunes the lovely quiescent wispy edge of night.

© Darius Birstonas | stock.adobe.com

Ken Allan Dronsfield is a published poet who has recently been nominated for The Best of the Net and 2 Pushcart Awards for Poetry in 2016. Ken loves thunderstorms, walking in the woods at night, and spending time with his cat Willa. Ken's new book, "The Cellaring", a collection of haunting, paranormal, weird and wonderful poems, has been released and is available through Amazon.com. He is the coeditor of the popular poetry anthology titled, Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze available at Amazon.com. A second anthology, Dandelion in a Vase of Roses will be released soon.

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Beach Day

By Eva Chapman Waves crash children laugh seagulls fly gliding high.

Sandy toes time is slow seashell finds different kinds.

Colorful kites clouds white ocean blue priceless view.

Beach chair sun's glare no fan suntan.

Shared smiles sit awhile no regret sunset. © alroarts - stock.adobe.com Eva Chapman resides in Spencer, WV. Her poems have appeared in Two Lane Livin Magazine. She bases her writings on personal life experiences. In her free time she pursues her passions which are poetry, song writing and reading. You may contact her on face book or email at echapman@frontier.com.

hairy coconut waves break and swash trunk pulling nut to sand Gregg Dotoli

Gregg Dotoli lives in the NYC area and has studied English at Seton Hall University. He has an MBA in Information Security .

Gregg’s poetry is published in any International Journals, Texts , Magazines and Anthologies. © magdal3na - stock.adobe.com Halcyon Days - 2017 Issue 6 | 6

The Yacht

By Matthew Harrison A port nearby secures a weathered yacht That in its youth ranged freely overseas, Now ringed by walls of stone it takes its ease Knowing capsize at sea won’t be its lot.

The wind sweeps swiftly over that stone wall – The saucy, teasing wind – now fore, now aft, Insinuating with her sudden draught, Making the yacht’s pennant now rise, now fall; The sun looks on benignly as she plays, Hiding her face, true, on a cloudy day, But later finding the kindliest way To restore the spars to their gilded days.

The yacht rests happily, with playmates double, Never leaving port, saving all the trouble!

Matthew Harrison lives in Hong Kong, and whether because of that or some other reason entirely his writing has veered from to literary to science fiction and he is currently writing poetry. He has published pieces in all of these genres. Matthew is married with two children but no pets as there is no space for these in Hong Kong. www.matthewharrison.hk © lorabarra - stock.adobe.com Halcyon Days - 2017 Issue 6

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Connecting the Great Blues

by E. A. Francis Consider the earth’s colors from space— a sphere of marbled blue and white.

The waters gather in the great blue sky and in the great blue oceans.

From a nearby pond, I pause in wonder to watch the grays displayed on a stately Great Blue Heron standing in the water and pointing its sword of a bill skyward; thus, connecting the earth’s blues above and below the creature.

When I gaze skyward with the heron— creatures sharing the earth— I sense that God is greater still in the great, calm blues of eternity.

© Sponchia - Pixabay.com

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The Hummingbird

By E. A. Francis It comes with a humming to delight my heart, flitting in and out and around my fuchsia, seldom pausing to rest.

Have you glimpsed this jewel of the air?

Ruby-throated and green-blue, hues of the rainbow, dancing in the sun’s light. © Anita Leamy

Such Delight!

Lily of the One Day

by E. A. Francis O, Day Lily, you have but one day to open to the sun, to gladden my heart with your quiet and constant beauty.

Golden orange blossom with crimson center, your petals open and reach upward to the light, as if in praise and prayer, as creature to Creator.

© Gregory_Loyko - Pixabay.com

Anita Leamy (pen name E.A. Francis) is an emerging poet who writes from the inspiration of the natural world and from her Christian faith lived. When she is not teaching preschoolers, she loves to read, sit with her cats, and watch the wild creatures from her sanctuary home. She welcomes reader responses by email or snail mail: anita.leamy@yahoo.com or 1006 Sitka Spruce Lane, Sykesville, MD 21784.

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Breathe. Stay calm. Ripples of peace will untangle all thought knots. ~Monique Berry © hansbenn | Pixabay.com

Monique Berry is the founding editor of Halcyon Days, Perspectives, and is launching a new magazine in August 2017. She has produced publications since July 2006. Her publishing credits include A Sitters Companion, Personal Journaling, Quills, and Rock Bottom Journal. Monique is working on her first novel and hopes to see it in print by July 2018.

From the Book of Meditations

By Austin Brookner Forget all you’ve learned, All the things you’ve done, And all the things you didn’t do.

Forget all you are thinking about And lie here With your eyes closed, And your mind soft, with Nothing in it.

Now just rest.

Rest a while - here, Not thinking, Not doing anything, Just lying still, Digesting all the outside forces And then push them out, And watch them scatter away Into nothing, And remember That this is all there is, All that there ever was, And all that there ever shall be.

Now rise. © Olaru Radian - stock.adobe.com

Austin Brookner has published fiction and poetry in several literary journals. He is also a singer-songwriter. Austin was born in New York City and lives in Texas. Website: www.austinbrookner.com or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Austin-Brookner-417262831624216/ Halcyon Days - 2017 Issue 6 | 10

Forever Still

By Aicha You You are poetry Darling You are the mosaic Built out of chaos You are the music That rose from the ashes of The sounds of war You are the art Lit with life And forever still

Š allyartist - Pixabay.com

A passionate writer and literature enthusiast, Arushi Singh has been experimenting with free style poetry for a few years. She is from Delhi, India, and is currently studying literature Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, and has developed an interest in postmodernist and postcolonial poetry with a focus on the marginal. She suffers from borderline personality disorder and depression and the core of much of her poetry is a fragmented set of tales about her battle with these. While half of her poetry is about love and heartbreak, a huge element of her works shines a light on the darker side of human emotions. She dedicates much of her work to those who have the same kind of struggle and hopes they find a voice in her poetry. Find her at her blog: ginsberg420.wordpress.com; Instagram @voiceofatticus; Twitter @exodus1296.

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Zen

By Amber McCready Floating down the calm river on a summer afternoon caress on cheeks from the sunshine filtered through the trees feet dangling from the inner tube into the cool creek scent of coconut suntan lotion and wet earth.

The carefree sound of traveling water, a salve to the stress of everyday life.

Bliss

By Amber McCready Coming into the cold breath of air conditioning on a hot summer’s day, the sweat from endless games turning to salt on soft skin.

Š Music4Life | Pixabay.com

Amber McCready has been published in Chinquapin Literary Magazine and the Chico News and Review. After graduating from UCSC in 2013 with degrees in creative writing and psychology, she moved to Portland, Oregon. She is currently working on a collection of poems. If internet stalking is your thing, she can be found on instragram via @mccready_amber.

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Strawberry Daiquiri and Silk Roses

By Ken Allan Dronsfield Motionlessly awake, helpless and heated desperate for breezes of a coolish content.

Fans moving air, like that of a hot hair dryer lazily sit by the pool, watch silk roses frown.

Ice in the freezer, fruit juice from the frig rum in the cupboard, blender waits nearby.

Fresh sliced strawberries in a bowl now rest sweat on the brow, the mixing time is now.

Tall glass from the hutch, granny's best crystal the noisy whirring is done, a stroke of mastery.

Walking back to the pool with a sheepish smile drink my strawberry daiquiri, as silk roses grin.

Š chiyacat - stock.adobe.com

Warm sand underfoot Six sandpipers play in surf Washed by ocean waves Ann Christine Tabaka

Š beketoff | stock.adobe.com

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Blessings

By Ann Christine Tabaka I am blessed In many ways Shelter at night And gifted days A loving husband A caring son A place to rest When day is done

The Gift

By Ann Christine Tabaka

My hands are busy My stomach full My life is like A shining jewel

Silent day Quiet night We feel by touch We speak by sight

Plentiful water Clean and warm A place of comfort In the storm

The mind is calm The body still We open up To hear God's will

The four seasons And holidays The special place That each one plays

Peaceful rest For a weary mind Noisy thoughts We leave behind

The blessings of My many friends The joy of nature Beginnings and ends

The crickets' songs Lull us to sleep The truths we find Are ours to keep

© inkflo - Pixabay.com

Ann Christine Tabaka was born in Wilmington Delaware in the early 1950's. She currently lives in Hockessin, Delaware. Christine has been writing poems and rhymes since her Junior High years. I was a Fine Arts Major in college. She always kept a journal of her writing, but only recently was encouraged by friends to publish. They all told her they wanted a copy of her work to hold in their hands. So she did! Christine has recently had 4 poems accepted into the upcoming anthology “Dandelion in a Vase of Roses.”

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Creation

By Elizabeth Spencer Spragins sunlight refracted into cloud watercolors— the paintbrush hovers just above a blank canvas beside my pristine palette

© julia arda - stock.adobe.com

Elizabeth Spencer Spragins is a linguist, writer, poet, and editor who taught in North Carolina community colleges for more than a decade. She writes in traditional poetic forms that focus on the beauty of landscapes and their inhabitants. Her bardic verse in the Celtic style has been published by The Lyric, The Quarterday Review, and The Society of Classical Poets Journal. Her tanka and short verse have appeared in Bamboo Hut, Skylark, Peacock Journal, and Atlas Poetica. An avid swimmer and an enthusiastic fiber artist, she lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia, with her husband and a rescued cat.

The Clematis

By Daniel Barbare Summer opens the window autumn’s prayer and I am in God’s House blessed by the perfume of clematis I’m seem intoxicated With love. © perfidni1 - stock.adobe.com

Danny P. Barbare resides in South Carolina. He has recently been published in Birmingham Arts Journal, Santa Clara Review, Up the River, and numerous other publications locally and abroad. He enjoys writing about nature, traveling to Flat Rock, NC and Hendersonville where his relatives live and the lowlands of Charleston, SC. He enjoys reading the poems of Mary Oliver, Robert Frost, and Emily Dickinson.

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Summer’s Reward

By Mary Ellen Gambutti

No matter how small your yard, if it has a sunny aspect, and you’re willing to give up a patch of lawn, a cutting garden will provide you with simple beauty, both in your home and out of doors. Find inspiration in choice mail order catalogs or gardening books, and whet your appetite for species and hybrids useful for cut flowers. Plot out your space, tilling in compost as needed. But many hardy perennials and annuals well-suited to cutting will do well in ordinary garden soil.

Enjoy the rhythm and movement of outdoor work, the sun, the air, birdsong, and repetitive symmetry of your personal creation. Plant, cultivate, and harvest for the sheer joy of it. Find satisfaction in the forms, colors, and textures, while you prepare the splendid results of your endeavor for living room or kitchen table.

Row after row of bright hot pinwheels, Zinnias always satisfy, and are easily grown from seed. Once they appear in the sun-warmed soil, gently thin seedlings to allow space for air circulation. Grow Sunflowers from seed, as well: Mammoths, multi-floral pale yellows, chocolate and sunset hues will bring the summer into your home in a pitcher or primitive crock.

Or bring a bunch in a rubber band wrapped in waxed paper to cheer a friend. Choose perennials like Bearded or Siberian Iris, clouds of Baby’s Breath, golden Yarrow, and Black-Eyed Susan.

The glowing beauty of the morning harvest is summer’s reward for a small effort.

Images © Mary Ellen Gambutti

Mary Ellen writes about her life as an adopted Air Force daughter, her search and reunion with her birth families, her professional gardening career, her brain hemorrhage and ongoing recovery. Her prose appears or is forthcoming in Gravel Magazine, Wildflower Muse, The Vignette Review, and The Remembered Arts. Her self-published short memoir is “Stroke Story: My Journey There and Back” is available through Amazon.com paper and e-book. She and her husband have retired from Pennsylvania to the Florida Gulf Coast where her writing enjoys a warmer climate. Visit her at https:ibisandhibiscusmelwrites.blogspot.com and https://m.facebook.com/melwritestoday/ or contact Melcmg@gmail.com Halcyon Days - 2017 Issue 6 | 16

June Poem

By Janet McCann

I’m not sure why all this green is beautiful. But it is.

I turn off the main street driving home and I see nothing but curves and hills of green.

The houses hide shyly behind it.

There’s only green and gold, the black-eyed Susans, the buttercups, and all the trees and bushes reaching out into the road, throwing bars of shade across my path.

I don’t really want to arrive, to pull into the drive, although the glistening jasmine has taken over my side yard, although the angles of my house are blurred by green.

I always want miles more of road, for the road to turn to pebbles the way it was when I moved here, the deer darting behind trees, squirrels and rabbits dashing across the street with plenty of time to avoid my slow approach.

I want more oaks, mimosas, sycamores, cedars, yaupons, mesquites, maples.

I always want the journey’s end to be just a little farther down the road. © Antonio - stock.adobe.com

Journals publishing Janet McCann’s work include Kansas Quarterly, Parnassus, Nimrod, Sou’wester, America, and others. A 1989 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship winner, she taught at Texas A & M University from 1969-2016, is now Professor Emerita. Most recent poetry collection: THE CRONE AT THE CASINO (Lamar University Press, 2014).

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Barefoot

By Burton L. Carlson Go barefoot if you want to know the suck of mud, the gutter’s flow; the soft of dust, the cool of grass, the wet and dry as seasons pass;

Go barefoot if you want to know . . . the cool of grass, the wet and dry as seasons pass.

the sting of bee, the stub of toe, the itch of burr, the bruise that slows; the smooth of glass, the rough of rust, paths to avoid, and paths to trust; the hot of asphalt, the cold of snow, important things a child should know, and as important for a man to take shoes off— barefoot again.

© Zauberin | Pixabay.com

Born in Sierra Leone, Burton L. Carlson grew up in Indiana, California, and Oregon. He published 70 to 80 poems in periodicals in the Sixties and Seventies. Since retiring to Maryland he has self-published nine chapbooks of poetry (Amazon).

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Late summer evening Whitetail deer bound over stream While saying good night Ann Christine Tabaka

© tanguilan - stock.adobe.com

Join the Descalzado

By Ingrid Bruck Join the Guatemala shoeless. Take off loafers and heels, feel stubble and grass with your toes. Splash as you walk in the creek, wear mud water like henna.

Feel the chill in your soles, a inside-out body refresher when heat simmers.

Barefoot in the garden, pull weeds that grow tall and entwine the roots of vegetables and flowers, weeding helps plants grow and unearths treasures ~ a worm squirms in soil, a toad hops away.

Shop the descalzado stores. Boycott the regular ones. Wear sandals with soles made out of car tires, plastic or leather. Spread feet might have cracks and calluses that don’t fit in manufactured shoes but they relish the cool breath of earth. Shoeless feet offer protection from the sting of heat and can walk on sharp stones. © rodimovpavel - stock.adobe.com

Ingrid Bruck is a poet/storyteller/retired library director. Her work has appeared in Howl of Sorrow: A Collection of Poems Inspired by Hurricane Sandy, Topography and Panoplyzine. She is a member of The International Women’s Writing Guild and a charter member of The Avocado Sisterhood.

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Shimmering

By Joan McNerney Noontime perfumed berries new grass.

Beneath honey locust through hushed woods we found a spring.

My feet throb over hard pebbles. Treading soft water the sun dresses us in golden sequins.

© Arestov Andrew - stock.adobe.com

This Morning

By Joan McNerney Between deep night and soft dawn the mist covers fields spreading over daisies climbing bunchberries wetting seeds, leaves.

Milky smoke roams back and forth wandering voiceless through mountains of morning.

Whistling in fog past sycamores warblers seesaw up cloudy layers up up circling toward heaven.

© efetova - stock.adobe.com

Joan McNerney’s poetry has been included in numerous literary zines such as Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze, Seven Circle Press, Dinner with the Muse, Blueline, Halcyon Days and included in Bright Hills Press, Kind of A Hurricane Press and Poppy Road Review anthologies. She has been nominated four times for Best of the Net. Halcyon Days - 2017 Issue 6 | 20

Cottage Gardening for Today

By Mary Ellen Gambutti

The quintessential cottage garden, which represents a dreamy, colorful, airy vision--blissful mounds of flowers gaily twisting and blowing in open country-bears little resemblance to the earliest cottage gardens.

Romantic Victorian paintings of burgeoning flower gardens encased in picket fences, and idealized images of wide borders filled with tall, billowy perennials, replaced earlier garden images of poverty and toil. In the ordinary laborer’s utilitarian thatch-roofed cottage patch, perhaps fenced to discourage rabbits, he grew meager sustenance crops, such as cabbage and potato.

Among the vegetables, his wife might have planted cuttings of Stock, Phlox, or Cottage Pinks. Today’s cottage gardener often contributes a sentimental note by adding a coveted treasure, like a sweet clump of fragrant Peony from a friend or neighbor; a “passalong plant.”

Oriental Poppies, Asters, Foxgloves, and Roses were among the many hardy perennials displayed in celebrated gardens of the Victorian designer and craftsperson, Gertrude Jekyll, and are reflected in Beatrice Parson’s and Lilian Stannard’s paintings.

Although nearly blind, Jekyll had an extraordinary sense of color, and espoused a gradation theory— ranging from hot orange, red and yellow shades, to cool violets and blues--planted in curving, repetitive drifts, musical masses of single types, in long borders.

Blending Jekyll’s plant and color ideas, with a primitive style adapted from the laborers’ garden, today’s cottage gardens are decidedly informal. Those seeking a rustic, relaxed garden style, that possesses an easy, unplanned, natural look, enjoy the cottage garden style. It often features an unabashed combination of brazen colors, but more often favors soft pastels.

Perennials and annuals vary in height, usually the tallest against a fence, or a wall.

Garden ornaments such as a bird bath, a bird house, sundial, statuary, rustic wood or stone bench, could complement the charming mix of formal and informal in today’s cottage garden. The pleasure is in the informality with casual flair, so enter the cottage garden gate into the dream behind the white picket fence.

© Mary Ellen Gambutti - stock.adobe.com

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Š pawopa3336 | stock.adobe.com

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The Armchair View

By Vidya Vasudevan “Uff!” Dame Summer escaped the noisy traffic and took refuge on the porch across grandpa's armchair. Her gaze moved around. Ah! An ocean of colour and a whiff of fresh air made her eager to settle down by the cosy chair. A peaceful, relaxing and serene retreat and just what she needed, the little garden soothed her jangled nerves agitated by the noxious gases spewed by the mad rush of vehicles outside. Her scorching rays soon mellowed down.

What did she see?

The white jasmine flowers enveloped her in their heady fragrance.

The red hibiscus nodded its head in a cheery greeting.

“Want some tangy gooseberries,” a heavily laden branch bent down to whisper. Her gaze then moved towards the fence. A familiar sound caught her ears. The leaves rustling, the wind on the prowl…who could it be?

The swaying mangoes promised a tasty treat pretty soon.

The bougainvilleas in their pink finery were indulging in a dancing show.

“Ahoy there!” The sprightly oleander beckoned. “Good morning, sunshine!”

Dame Summer sat enthralled as the scene unfolded. All other thoughts were swept away as the vivid colours gave her immense pleasure.

Sudden signs of activity and a bright flash of red in the far corner of the garden caught her attention. A bushy-tailed creature squeaked ’thank you’ for the tidbits of coconut. The fiery pomegranate flowers added to her glow.

Dame Summer sighed in utter bliss and contentment. She felt doubly sure that she would hit the jackpot in the popularity stakes. Her warm gaze hovered over the nearby tree with its wide green canopy resounding with the chirping of birds. The wrinkles in her brow silently slipped away.

She thought of the faraway land where spring was just about over. She could hear them calling. In her mind, she could foresee the visual pleasures that awaited the folks there but first she had to work hard—her rays had to reach every nook and corner. Grandpa’s armchair was really cosy. So she lingered… and dreamt…

Vidya Vasudevan enjoys creative writing as a hobby. She likes writing on issues of topical interest which are of concern to the common man. She is also into poetry, short fiction and creative non fiction. She prefers a touch of humour to relieve the humdrum of everyday life.

Images © Vidya Vasudevan Halcyon Days - 2017 Issue 6

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Thanks for swinging by.

May every day be a halcyon day.

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