Melanie Harless did not began pursuing her childhood dream of writing until after retirement in 2006. Since retiring as a school librarian, she has written a regional travel column, and published nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. Her poetry has been published in anthologies, journals, and magazines, including award-winning poems in The Tennessee Magazine and in the annual anthology Tennessee Voices from The Poetry Society of Tennessee. Journals include The Avocet, Monterey Poetry Review, The Bluebird Word, and Your Daily Poem. Living in East Tennessee and close to the Smoky Mountains, Melanie finds the changing seasons and nature greatly influence her writing. She enjoys nature photography, birdwatching, and daily walks in Oak Ridge, where she lives with her husband of sixty years. @memeharless
PRAISE:
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The daily life of Melanie Harless is filled with unexpected pleasures: “foliose lichen on a twig, / quince fruit with its heady aroma,” “daffodils / dancing in the wind.” She writes of the seasons with affection and a bit of rueful humor: March, who is often warm and welcoming, but can also be long-winded and blustery, and sometimes “goes on a thunderous rant” before April arrives with her pastel paints—and a little red and purple to splash over the rhododendron. A rose-breasted grosbeak arrives with his Jimmy Durante beak. Along with the beautiful images of nature, Harless unfurls memories of days on the porch with her daughters and, in her youth, with her mother and grandmother; she praises her husband’s strength and steadfastness using a tree as metaphor. The sweet mixture of memories and observation carry us through the year, bleakness and beauty mixed and stirred to recreate the seasons of a well-lived life.
–Connie Jordan Green, author of Nameless as the Minnows and other books.
In this debut collection, Melanie Harless leads the reader on a journey through the year and through a life, brimming with sensory details gleaned from her close observation of both. Following an opening poem filled with hope that “better seasons are coming,” she offers perspectives suggesting that those of the past and present may be gift enough. These poems tell not only of the natural world, but of the “sights, sounds, and smells” of cherished days spent with family. One describes the small gifts of nature brought to her daily by her husband, “something to delight/season after season,” so much like what this rich collection offers her readers.
–Carol Grametbauer, author of Now and Again and Homeplace
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