POETRY / PODCAST
Exclusive
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Winter Prayers
— POEM by
Barbara Leonard
— Recitation by
Helen Pletts
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The sound of snow is holy.
Old bark listens to the lilting chants;
Of processions of children;
On drifting banks.
Laughter resounds as accolades.
Sleds leave trails to be filled with new pilgrims.
Cardinals trumpet requiems on brittle limbs;
Hanging tenuously in blizzards.
Squirrels forage in frozen soil under a white sky—
The sun has its own prophecy in ice.
Mountains awaken to the tired hikers;
Seeking sanctuary.
Pines stand as preachers—
Creeks are too frozen for parables.
I have a warm hearth by a fire.
My window opens to this temple;
Bringing me inside myself;
To listen to the prayers of snow.
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Barbara Leonhard
An author of Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir (2022) and The Lost Book of Zeroth (2025). Also, she is co-author of Too Much Fun to Be Legal (2024) and Broken Rengay: Unruly Poetry (2025). She is the Editor for Masticadores USA and FEED THE HOLY, as well. Her WordPress blog is Extraordinary Sunshine Weaver. She’s a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. Trending Poets named her Poet of the Year in 2023 and 2024. Moreover, her poetry has been translated into Italian, Albanian, and Chinese.
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Helen Pletts
A British poetess based in Cambridge. But, she is the English co-translator of Chinese poet Ma Yongbo 马永波. Also, she is a member of the committee for CB1 Poetry, the monthly poetry reading event in Cambridge. Until now, her work has been translated into Chinese, Bangla, Greek, Vietnamese, Serbian, Korean, Arabic, Italian, Albanian and Romanian. Additionally, she and Ma Yongbo are joint creators of the ongoing ‘Ma Yongbo Poetry Road Trip – Summer Tour 2025’, for International Times.IT, currently at Volume 30.
Moreover, her poetry has five shortlistings for the Bridport Poetry Prize (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024) as well; two longlistings for The Rialto Nature & Place Prize (2018, 2022); a longlisting for the Ginkgo Prize (2019); a longlisting for the National Poetry Competition (2022); 2nd Prize in the Plaza Prose Poetry Competition (2022-23), and a shortlisting for the Plaza Prose Poetry Competition (2023-24).
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