Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 1
Halcyon Days 2022—Issue 26
Founder, Monique Berry | Hamilton On Canada
B. A. Brittingham
Roadsides 18
Stillness 18
Bruce Levine
Oolong Tea 10
Seasonal Change 11
Carolyn Chilton Casas
Sometimes 9
Dr. William Waters
No Wind Now 6
Gaiyle J. Connolly
Nature Provides 21
Jane Briganti
Luminous 5
Butterflies 5
The Sweetest Sleep 14
Riverwalk 20
Joan Mazza
In the Land Where Chlorophyll is Queen 4
Linda Hughes
The Evening Bath 15
Monique Berry
Swing Drifting 3
Nolen Price
My Sunshine 8
Picnics 8
Nolo Segundo
My Own Small Slice of Paradise 7
Ocean City 12
Sammy Anderson
Perfect Day to Run Away 16
Stella Mazur Preda
It’s Magic 21
Janice Canerdy
Porch 17
Summer Rain 17
Light 19
Respite 19
Cover Image: gene1970—Pixabay.com
Halcyon Days Magazine
ISSN: 2291-0255
Frequency: Quarterly
Publisher | Designer: Monique Berry
Contact Info
http://halcyondaysmagazine.blogspot.ca
Twitter: @1websurfer
monique.editor@gmail.com
Special Notices
Halcyon Days has one time rights.
See website for subscription details.
No photocopies allowed.
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 2
Swing Drifting
Monique Berry
Halcyon thoughts
drift on sunset waves,
bobbing
up and down,
traveling the C’s of the mind—
calm currents
content cuisines,
senses
comforted by tranquil breezes.
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 3
In the Land Where Chlorophyll is Queen
Joan Mazza
Spring begins with pale green, yellow green,
deepening to emerald as the forest fills in
with the canopy of trees and the understory
of ferns and wild azalea. Saplings grow
from last year’s acorns. Pollen paints everything
yellow, fools the viewer into believing the pond’s
black water is solid, and then is blown to the east
to sink. All summer, green in every shade, hue,
and value— chloroplast factories making sugar.
Daffodils and forsythia bloom yellow, followed
by tulips in pink and deep red with slashes
of black, before bearded iris in deep blue
and purple, as if the flowers know the rainbow
of the human visible spectrum. You can set
your clock and your calendar to the arrival
of wood ducks and snapping turtles, the bloom
of filamentous algae. We are lucky with rain.
Farmers’ fields stay green, corn rises near fields
of deep green soybean. A flourish of family gardens—
lettuces and peas before cucumbers, squash,
tomatoes, and eggplant. Basil, parsley, sage, scallions,
harvested fresh with bok choy, samposei, celery,
onions, and carrots for soup and stir-fries.
Set back from the road, no one sees me or my house
down the long driveway, downhill to the pond
and creek. Quiet and solitary, poet and writer,
call me aloof, a snob, a mystery to my neighbors.
Oh, to live rural, surrounded by trees, awash
in chlorophyll and its cousin anthocyanins.
Oh, to be grateful for abundance and fertility,
always surprised by clouds, bright sunlight,
and too many zucchini— wealth
I never had in a city, always longed for.
Larisa Koshkina—Pixabay.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 4
Luminous
Jane Briganti
Shinning down from Heaven above
A luminous light of endless love
Feel the energy from its rays
Shine upon you for brighter days
Bask in the glory of its glow
Set yourself free and just let go
Natalia Tonevytska—Pixabay.com
Butterflies
Jane Briganti
A pasture of green grass
blowing in the wind
meets a blue pastel sky
as far as the eye can see
In the faraway distance
standing alone
a maple tree blossoms
Leaves like cherry red
create an umbrella
of magnificence
a playground of branches
where vibrant butterflies
flutter together
Swooping and swirling
dancing in circles
drawing rainbows of color
in the sky
Luminous butterflies
in a whirlwind flight
celebrating summer
cocoparisienne—Pixabay.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 5
No Wind Now
Dr. William Waters
No wind now;
Just drips
From a leaf
Hitting
A puddle.
Memories move
Memories.
Sleep
returns
elen studio—stock.adobe.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 6
My Own Small Slice of Paradise
Nolo Segundo
I look out my backyard and
rejoice in its greenness
(even though green is not
my favorite color) and I
think I am so fortunate
to have a tame jungle
for a backyard with its
own little zoo of squirrels
dancing like dervishes and
birds fluttering like mad
and fat crafty groundhogs
continually trying to dig
under my shed for their
own comfy rent-free home
and the occasional skunk
(so beautiful at a distance)
or even a proud wild turkey
but best of all is when a
deer or two or three come
like virgin queens to quietly
meander o’er my ¼ acre
domain-- it may not be like
sitting on a beach in Hawaii
overlooking the Pacific as
the sun gracefully dies yet
again but it is my own, my
very own small slice of
Paradise….
Ivan Kuzmin—stock.adobe.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 7
Picnics
Nolen Price
Baseball bats and sandwiches.
You asked to have brunch
underneath the orange trees.
Drinking sangria and talking about
your parents’ expectations and swinging at
tangerines after we’re done eating. Pulp
rains from the sky, you pitch me more
fruit. We strikeout then you kiss the juice
off my face while I add to your neatly
piled peels, stacked perfectly
on the blanket.
Dasha Petrenko—stock.adobe.com
My Sunshine
Nolen Price
Li Ding—stock.adobe.com
I’ve seen sunflowers turn their heads to look
at you smile
and I’ve seen roses stretch themselves just tall
enough to touch your nose
when you bend to smell them.
I’ve heard black-eyed-Susan's
whisper sweet things as you walk by
and I’ve heard the orchids braided in your
hair say
they no longer need water,
they just need you.
You hold my hand and I realize
I just need you.
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 8
Sometimes
Carolyn Chilton Casas
Life gives me a morning
after having slumbered
like an angel
in a cocoon of cotton blankets
and flannel sheets,
seated cross-legged, lotus pose
on the bedroom floor,
with a
hot cup of coffee,
whipped cashew mill
and cinnamon stirred in,
looking out the open door
to wide-spread hawk wings
circling the heavens,
riding their enraptured
roller coaster in the sky.
Glancing down, I see
a glittering snail track, dotted
like the path of a treasure map,
woven between
fallen leaves on the patio.
And I feel happy
for the coming day,
Life is like that. Sometimes
it gives you exactly what
you want and need.
Viacheslav Yakobchuk—stock.adobe.com
Alina—stock.adobe.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 9
Oolong Tea
Bruce Levine
The residual taste of two cups of oolong tea
The warmth remaining on the cheeks and tongue
The comfort and relaxation of oolong tea and a good book
The lamp set at the right angle and the brightness at the perfect
intensity for a good read
A murder mystery
A dead body (only on paper) with no blood and no gore
preceding its revelation
The careful detection – work of the minds of the amateur and professional
An evening to ponder with a cup of oolong tea
Pixel-Shot—stock.adobe.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 10
Seasonal Change
Bruce Levine
Focused on the season as it changes
Cool mornings refreshing the days
Drifting onwards with gentle sensations
Like clocks ticking softly and musical chimes
Waking to sunlight like a hand gently touching
No strident sensations of screeching alarms
No beeping or tweeting other than bird songs
A glorious sunrise to open the eyes
As cumulous clouds in a tranquil blue sky
Making formations in a cartoonish display
Like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg their manifestations
Presenting the dichotomy of seasonal change
Days made for walking without destination
With a dog and a loved one for perfect companions
To lighten the heart with each happy step on the way
And sidewalks seem like pathways to The Wizard of Oz
Focused on the season as it changes
Lingering days on a calendar page
Adding dimensions in easy progression
The rhythm moves onward in the seasonal change
Анатолий Стафичук—Pixabay.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 11
Ocean City
Nolo Segundo
I saw it then as my own little Shangri-la,
for I was very small and knew nothing
of the big world, the grown-ups’ world.
And for the child-me it was nirvana,
that little town on a barrier island
between the gray, cold, untamed and
endless Atlantic Ocean and the quiet,
near somnolent bay where the boats
of the less brave could sail safely….
I could ride my bike from Nana and
Pop-pop’s little house on that bay,
feeling as free as the myriad seagulls
swirling forever above my head--
I’d ride ‘cross town to the boardwalk
and if I had a dollar, see a movie by
myself, feeling like a proud little lord--
I remember as though yesterday, and
not 60 some years, my favorite theater,
with its long darkish hall that looked
like the entrance to a pirate’s den,
lined with displays of model sailing
ships, mostly men-o-war chasing, yes,
pirates, but never catching them….
But most afternoons I was happy to
just sit quietly on the porch of my
grandparents’ house, smelling the
dinner Nana was making while I
read of countless dreams in books,
books that captured like a pirate
his prey, and took me round the
world in the finest and fastest
sailing ship of all—imagination!
posh—stock.adobe.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 12
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 13
The Sweetest Sleep
Jane Briganti
She sleeps the sweetest sleep
Her head lies gently upon her pillow
Clutched in her arms is his pillow
nestled under her cheek and chin
Kneeling alongside the bed
he watches and wonders
"Is she dreaming of me?"
Quietly he watches over her
like a Guardian Angel
Slowly he moves in closer
placing his face in front of hers
upon the pillow she holds so tightly
His lips just millimeters from hers
His breath warms her face
He moves yet even closer
Kissing her ever so gently
his lips on hers so soft
He pauses and she wakes
to keep their kiss alive
Time stands still for both
Face to face
Gazing into one another's eyes
His palm touches gently upon her cheek
He whispers "sleep my darling the sweetest sleep"
Dream of me for I am here and
I love you
Ekaterina Senyutina—stock.adobe.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 14
The Evening Bath
Linda Hughes
She bathes in evening’s
mahogany light
on a chair
where the sunshine was.
Licks her white paws
draws them
over ears, head, eyes.
Her white gloved hands
little ghosts dancing.
The same ghosts
that will tap my face
in the morning.
Stealing dreams.
Светлана Бердник—Pixabay.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 15
Perfect Day to Run Away
Sammy Anderson
Sun low.
Sun shining.
Wind blows
with perfect timing.
Soft heat.
Rustled leaves.
Nature’s beat.
Made to please.
Talk about mountains
beyond horizons.
River fountain
glows like diamonds.
And trapped alone
just looking on
wondering
where is my home?
So much beauty
on such a day
it feels my duty
to run away
zarir madonéEyeEm—stock.adobe.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 16
Porch
Janice Canerdy
Pen and paper meet
On mild days when skies are blue.
Roomy poet’s seat,
Cozy nook lends summer view.
Halcyon are times so sweet.
Summer Rain
Janice Canerdy
For days the unrelenting heat oppressed.
The crops were suffering. We prayed for rain.
None was predicted, but we’d soon be blessed.
A downpour proved our hopes were not in vain.
Our neighbors must have thought we were insane
when they observed us singing with delight
and dancing in the mud. Thank God, our plight
had ended, and we knew our crops would grow.
Just as our jubilation reached a height,
the sky revealed a glorious rainbow.
dbrus—stock.adobe.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 17
Roadsides
B. A. Brittingham
Michigan’s summer is heralded by the lily arrival,
a splendid time for those sprinting by on bike or
in auto beneath the year’s first searing solstice spell.
Something about their sudden influx makes us smile:
organic orange sparkler on a stem, cool creamsicle
on a stick, swaying verge profusion of scores of jaunty
pyrotechnic blooms that leapt up for no reason other
than to make us chuckle; or perhaps to compel us
to forget the charcoal skies and melancholies of winter.
The road bends as do the carrot-colored blossoms
so that there is a constant shifting edge of silent floral
merriment. The underside — somehow ugly with a
dark specter obscuring it — is its classification as
“invasive.” Daylilies were imported, in all their perky
pepperiness, to enhance color in home gardens. But on
a moonless summer night (my fantasy) they absconded,
and became (to some) just a pesky planta non grata.
Yet somehow, they don’t fit the image of a voracious silver
carp, the destructive zebra mussel, or even choking kudzu.
Perhaps that is the underlying reminder: even pure
innocence bathed in beauty can be inherently injurious.
Ulrike Leone—Pixabay.com
Stillness
B. A. Brittingham
Photology—stock.adobe.com
Silence, though not of the dead, or even
that of an early winter snowfall. No,
this is a full hush; one imagines Nature
busily sweeping up the detritus of the
season just past: crumpled leaves, a tiny
frozen field mouse, soggy splintered branches
brought down by gladly forgotten ice storms,
straw colored stubble of last summer’s weeds.
There is a sense of charged fullness as though
at any moment will come an upwelling, a surge
of sudden change that heralds the cheery onset
of another season of hope and anticipated harvest.
From the distance comes a languorous whine
like that of a slow-moving bumblebee:
the highway hum of a lone auto scurrying its way
to parts unknown, while the earth waits expectantly.
It is the moment before a drumroll announces the
commencement of growth, of joy, indeed of
Life, of Existence renewing itself!
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 18
Light
Janice Canerdy
Warm days exude rich life renewed,
and all around is golden-hued
in sunlight.
The squirrels chatter-talk with verve.
For entertaining they deserve
the limelight.
Birds gather twigs to build their nests
and trill their tunes to make the best
of daylight.
As night approaches, sunshine flees.
Soon peeking through the tall oak
trees
comes moonlight.
Soft music brings a pensive sigh
as I create a poem by
candlelight.
Respite
Janice Canerdy
When July heat falls to a cooling shower
late in the afternoon, I find porch-swinging
a joy. There’s respite for each plant and flower.
The only lights I need come gently winging
their way to me. The lightning bugs’ bright power
brings memories of childhood days of singing
and playing. Though it’s late, I won’t be going
inside right now. A pleasant breeze is blowing.
Ju see—stock.adobe.com
fergregory—stock.adobe.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 19
Riverwalk
Jane Briganti
A nature walk
On a Sunday afternoon
Meditation in motion
Early in the day
Or evening by the moon
Changing scenery
Beneath the sky
A bounty of beauty
A walk along the river
You need not a reason why
ann0306—stock.adobe.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 20
Nature Provides
Gaiyle J. Connolly
danger of falling
an excuse to stand close
the enveloping roar
disguise for hearts beating loudly
foam floating
a reason for fond face touching
we visit waterfalls
watch water fall
nature provides
the exotic, erotic
creates our own hydrosphere
It’s Magic
Stella Mazur Preda
Sh-h-h
Listen
The sky is talking
Stars laugh dance
frolick in indigo heavens.
The moon surreptitiously smiles
winks mischievously.
I gaze to the celestial spheres —
What mysteries hidden
in the ebony firmament?
I continue my solitary walk.
Fireflies light my path
moths tickle my cheeks
winds hum soothingly
wrap me in gentle warmth.
I sit
Ponder
As the sky talks
lois—stock.adobe.com
Elena Abduramanova—stock.adobe.com
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 21
Contributor Bios
B. A. Brittingham The author, formerly of New York City and South Florida, is a resident of
Southwestern Michigan, and has published essays in the Hartford Courant; short stories in Florida
Literary Foundation’s hardcover anthology, Paradise; with the University of Georgia Center for
Continuing Education; in the 1996 Florida First Coast Writers’ Festival, in Britain’s World Wide
Writers and in Anthology of Short Stories-2021. “The Note in the Wood,” was a semi-finalist in the
2003 Nelson Algren Awards and was published in the June 2008 issue of Shore Magazine. Poetry has
appeared in Kitchen Sink Magazine, the ocean waves, the Crone’s Words and Green Shoe Sanctuary.
Bruce Levine has spent his life as a writer of fiction and poetry and as a music and theatre professional.
A 2019 Pushcart Prize Poetry nominee, a 2021 Spillwords Press Awards winner, the Featured Writer in
WestWard Quarterly Summer 2021 and his bio is featured in “Who’s Who of Emerging Writers 2020.”
Bruce has over three hundred works published on over twenty-five on-line journals including Ariel
Chart, Spillwords, The Drabble; nearly seventy print books including Poetry Quarterly, Haiku Journal,
Tipton Poetry Journal; Halcyon Days and Founder’s Favourites (on-line and print) and his shows have
been produced in New York and around the country. His work is dedicated to the loving memory of his
late wife, Lydia Franklin. A native Manhattanite, Bruce now lives and writes in Maine. Visit him
at www.brucelevine.com
Carolyn Chilton Casas lives on the central coast of California, the perfect landscape for a love of
hiking and playing beach volleyball. She is a Reiki master and teacher, whose favorite theme for writing
is about ways to heal. Her stories and poems have appeared in Braided Way, Energy, A Network for
Grateful Living, Reiki News Magazine, Touch, and in other publications. You can read more of
Carolyn’s work on Facebook, on Instagram at mindfulpoet_, or in her first collection of poems titled Our
Shared Breath.
Dr. William Waters is an associate professor, in the Department of English at the University of
Houston Downtown. Along with Sonja Foss, he is coauthor of Destination Dissertation: A Traveler’s Guide
to a Done Dissertation. His research and teaching interests are in writing theory and modern grammar.
Gaiyle J. Connolly, a poet and artist from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, has numerous publications to her
credit, some of them prize-winning. They appear in local and international periodicals and journals. Her
collection of poetry, Lifelines, which she also illustrated, was published in 2015. Her background of
several ethnicities, love of art and travel and devotion to social justice are reflected in her work. Her
readership includes Canada, the United States, Mexico and India. She is Past President of the Tower
Poetry Society in Hamilton and has been active in poetry groups in Mexico. She is at the moment
working on her second book of poetry for which once again she will provide illustrations. As a change
of pace, she is trying her hand at short story writing inspired by her childhood years spent in rural
Janice Canerdy is a retired high-school English teacher from Potts Camp, Mississippi. She has been writing
poetry for decades. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications, including Halcyon (November
2014), Halcyon Days, Lyric Magazine, Parody, Lighten Up Online, the Society of Classical Poets Journals, and
the contest journals of the Mississippi Poetry Society and the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. She
has had one book published, Expressions of Faith (Christian Faith Publishing, 2016).
Jane Briganti lives and works in Maine. Her poetry has been frequently published
by Creations Magazine and has appeared in journals including WestWard Quarterly, Better
Than Starbucks, Spillwords and Leaves of Ink. She believes poetry is the soul’s way of
communicating with itself.
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 22
Joan Mazza worked as a medical microbiologist, psychotherapist, and taught workshops on
understanding dreams and nightmares. She is the author of six self-help psychology books, including
Dreaming Your Real Self. Her poetry has appeared in Rattle, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Prairie
Schooner, Italian Americana, Poet Lore, Slant, The Nation, and elsewhere. She lives in rural central
Virginia.
Linda Hughes has Oklahoma roots and now live in the wonderland of Florida. I absorb
sunshine and poetry, enjoy painting on the lanai, meditating under palms, running here and there.
I love being surprised by the animals that wander out of the jungle and pass through my world.
My work has been published in The American Journal of Nursing's (AJN) Art of Nursing,
Humana Obscura, Plainsongs,The Evening Street Review and others.
Monique Berry is the founder of Halcyon Days, Founder’s Favourites, and the upcoming
Perspectives Magazine dedicated to inanimate objects describing their environment. She is
published in several publications including Writers Digest, Sitters Companion and Rattle. She
loves writing and getting inspired in cafés and tea rooms. She is working on her first novel
Jacob’s Secret.
Nolen Price is a first-year student at Susquehanna University pursuing a degree in creative
writing. He has been previously published in Rivercraft Magazine and Ambidextrous
Bloodhound Press. He was born in Texas and now resides in Pennsylvania. He mainly writes
poetry and hopes to make writing into his career.
Nolo Segundo pen name of L.J. Carber, 74, in his 8th decade became a published poet in over 70
online/in print literary journals and anthologies in the US, UK, Canada, Romania, India and Italy. In 2020
a trade publisher released a book length collection, THE ENORMITY OF EXISTENCE, and in 2021 a
2nd book, OF ETHER AND EARTH. Both titles (as do many of his poems) reflect the awareness he's
had for 50 years since having an NDE whilst almost drowning that he has a consciousness that predates
birth and survives the death of the body—what poets once called the soul. He was also nominated for the
Pushcart Prize 2022 by an online journal. A retired teacher (America, Japan, Taiwan, Cambodia), he has
been married 41 years to a smart and beautiful Taiwanese woman.
Sammy Anderson is an award winning independent filmmaker residing in North Hollywood,
California. Understanding higher education was not for him, he spent much of his early
adulthood traveling the United States and gaining hands-on experience in his fields of passion.
Although he has been writing his entire life, he has only recently begun setting his sights on
getting his work published.
Stella Mazur Preda is a resident of Waterdown, Ontario, Canada. Having retired from
elementary teaching in Toronto, she is owner and publisher of Serengeti Press, a small press
publishing company, located in the Hamilton area. Since its opening in 2003, Serengeti Press has
published 43 Canadian books. Serengeti Press is now temporarily on hiatus. Stella Mazur Preda
has been published in numerous Canadian anthologies and some US, most notably the purchase
of her poem My Mother’s Kitchen by Penguin Books, New York. Stella has released four
previous books, Butterfly Dreams (Serengeti Press, 2003); Witness, Anthology of
Poetry (Serengeti Press, 2004), edited by John B. Lee; From Rainbow Bridge to Catnip Fields (Serengeti Press,
2007) The Fourth Dimension, (Serengeti Press, 2012). She is a current member of Tower Poetry Society in
Hamilton, Ontario and The Ontario Poetry Society. Stella is currently working on her fifth book, Tapestry, based
on the life of her aunt and written completely in poetic form.
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 23
Halcyon Days - 2022 Issue 26 | 24