Transfiguration: Poems

By Pat Shannon Leonard

Transfiguration is a distillation of Pats experiences, memories and inner landscapes. Woven throughout the collection is a story of over 61 years of married love. She speaks with candor of the years she suffered manic-depression and her husband endured debilitating dementia; she shares, as well, the joys, conflicts and deepening love that come after retirement.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 15, 2010
• ISBN: 9781462804375

Pat Shannon Leonard

A native Californian, granddaughter of Los Angeles pioneers, Pat Shannon Leonard, author of Seashells and laughing Gulls, Songs of a Sea Island, came to New York State when she married her husband, Bill. After living for many years in the North Country, most memorably on Lake George where they raised three children, Pat and Bill retired to Seabrook Island, South Carolina Where Pat was first inspired to write poetry. In 1999 they moved to North Carolina. After Bill’s death in 2003, Pat returned to the Adirondacks to Warrensburg where she often reads her poetry on 2nd Thursdays at Willows Bistro.

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Copyright © 2010 by Pat Shannon Leonard.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Cover photo of Lake George, New York by Pat Shannon Leonard

Haiku photos by Pat Shannon Leonard

Photo of author in a hot air balloon by Brian Landenberger.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

90084

Contents

About the Author

About the Book

I New And Revised Poems

Hackensack

A Grave Matter

Harmony

I Don’t Sing Love Songs Anymore

Picking Blueberries

The White feather

The Bent Man

When I As A Young California Bride

After All These Years, Hank,

A Moment Ago

An Anniversary Card, 1994

This Afternoon

Photo Haiku

II Inner Landscapes

At The End Of The Rainbow

Visions Of Lake George,

Silent City

Snow Ghosts

Camping On The Olympic Penisula

Vibrant City

Paean To Spring

Gottesacker

In Cypress Gardens

Walking In A Costa Rica Rainforest

Corcovado

Along A Carolina Highway

Atlantic and Pacific

Serendipity

Beach Encounter

After Glow

Do You Remember

Skirmish By The Sea

Winter Interlude

Smoke Signals

Monk In The Rock

Alakshak

III Marriage After Retirement

Happy Birthday

Seashells

Small Of The Back

Because We Are So Different

Sonnet For The Golden Years

If I Could

If

New Face

On The Boise River Bridge Idaho, 1988

Time Warp

Paradox

Knowing-Unknowing

The Last Year Of Our Life Together

Three Months Later

IV Manic Depression

I live half the year

Meltdown

Sea Change

After A Siege Of Mild Depression

Born Again

Seasons Of The Mind

V Dementia

Open And Shut

Waking Atone

Not Childs Play

Save It

Anger Is Reaching Volcanic Proportions

The Rocky Road

Illumination

VI Selected Poems 1979-2008

Strangers

Ski Discovery

Dance Of The Seasons

To Baryshinokov With Love

Angel Unaware

Cats

The Rescue

To Hold Life

Sisyphus

13

In Protest Against Cosmetic Surgery

The Tail Of A Cat Almost Destroyed

An Old Cliche

Tir na nOg

How To Raise A Tomboy

The Train To Nowhere

Ice Cream Cone

At The End Of The Magic Show

Cosmic Origin

Irma

Stone Pillow*

Feisty Eileen

Night Of The Shooting Stars

George R. Groves

Snags

Chapter II

On Bohicket Road

Zenobia

My New Best friend

Christmas Wreath

A Morning Prayer

VII Finis

William Patrick Leonard 1919-2008

Acknowledgments

Dedicated to the memory of my beloved Bill,

our children Bill, Mike, Mary and our seven grandchildren

About the Author

Pat Shannon Leonard’s poems have been published in two anthologies, Carolina voices and 75, The Poetry Society of South Carolina, 1921-1996 also in several Yearbooks of The Poetry Society of South Carolina, The Chronicle, The Pen Woman and Nature Photographer. During the 1980’s and 90’s she was a regular contributor of poetry to Ashley Cooper’s column, ‘Doing the Charleston’ in the Charleston News and Courier and The Lesser Squawk," the journal of the Charleston Audubon Society. A Certified Professional Photographer by The New York Institute of Photography, Pat was known for her slide show/poetry readings throughout the South Carolina Low Country. Seashells and Laughing Gulls, Songs of a Sea Island was published by Winston-Derek, 1983.

About the Book

Transfiguration is a distillation of Pat’s experiences, memories and inner landscapes. Woven throughout the collection is a story of over 61 years of married love.