EIF is excited to announce the forthcoming publication of Barbara Harris Leonard’s debut poetry collection: Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir. …

Coming Soon: ‘Three-Penny Memories’ by Barbara Harris Leonhard

When Mom died in 2016, writing poems about her helped me grieve my loss. My poems speak of many complex emotions. What connected us? Disconnected us? Was I a good daughter? Was she a good mother? All these questions haunted me even as I cared for her when the Alzheimer’s progressed, stealing the woman I knew as my mother.

When I told my uncle Mom was moving here, he asked me, “Do you love her?” His question raised doubt. Why did he ask me that? Hence, the overriding conflict in my book. Did I love my mother, or was I ungrateful?

I invite you to join me on this emotional journey by reading these poems, many of which were difficult to…