“Candy Floss and Dancing Bears” Pirate Poetry With Harvey

In this tender and whimsical episode, Alexander Blue Feather invites you into a weekend of poetry, play, and presence with Harvey Pink Feather. From basement pirate poetry sessions to the gentle rhythms of ‘Blossomise’ by Simon Armitage, their world unfolds in haikus, laughter, and the quiet magic of shared moments. As winter lingers and spring stirs beneath the surface, this is an offering to hold both—the hush of snow and the promise of bloom. Harvey’s voice rises like birdsong, her love for haikus and pirate tales weaving joy into the stillness. Come, linger in this space where poetry and love lead us home.

Episode Summary:

Alexander reflects on a meaningful trip to New York to see Harvey, where their time together was filled with play, poetry, and deep presence. A thoughtful gift—a book of poetry called Blossomise—becomes the heart of their weekend, inspiring a magical pirate poetry session. Through haikus, storytelling, and a Mary Oliver reading, Alexander explores the themes of seasons, transitions, and the power of noticing the moment before it passes. The episode closes with a gentle invitation: to embrace the last few weeks of winter, to pay attention, and to offer presence as a gift.

Key Points & Takeaways:

• The Beauty of Small Gestures – Harvey’s welcome, complete with candles, fresh linens, and a handwritten Valentine, reflects the depth of love in simple acts.

• Pirate Poetry & Playfulness – Creativity and imagination infused the weekend, with poetry taking center stage in their pirate ship adventures.

• The Power of Poetry – Reading Blossomise sparked conversations about nature, life, and memory, reinforcing poetry as a bridge between generations.

• Seasons as Metaphors for Life – The transition from winter to spring serves as a reminder to be present, to notice what is budding, and to honor the cycles of life.

• An Invitation to Presence – Inspired by Mary Oliver’s poem, Alexander encourages listeners to slow down, embrace stillness, and cherish the now.

Transcript

Welcome to Viral Mindfulness, the podcast. I'm your host, Alexander Bluefeather. Hey, soul sibling. Welcome back to a new episode of the podcast. Life is a beach unless I'm chasing Harvey or chasing Broadway or national parks.

This week, I'm chasing Harvey, and I wanted to share something really meaningful on several levels. I got to New York on Friday, February 21, a week after Valentine's Day. I was supposed to be there on Valentine's Day and, had to change my trip and spend some time on the West Coast with my father and my family, and I'll tell you more about that soon. And when I arrived a week later to Harvey's house, she was bummed, wasn't there for Valentine's Day. But I think she understands.

And when I got there, there was a little package that had arrived from a friend. There was a little rose and a pride flag and a little blue vase. And, oh, Harvey had written a Valentine for me as well and put a little lip smacker on the outside of the Valentine and little tea light candles sitting in my room with fresh linens. She was really excited, and we had a wonderful weekend, our first weekend together this past weekend, and we got to play for hours. And we play in the basement, this really wonderful playroom.

And, of course, we have our two dolls, the American Girl dolls. She has Julie, and I have Kavi. So this book I received well, I received a little package, and in the package, was a book with some chocolate bars and a beautiful tote bag from the MoMA, which, features a quote that says a certain a certain blue enters your soul, and it's so great. And this book is a beautiful illustrated book by Angela Harding. She's the illustrator.

And Simon Armitage, and that's the author, and the book is called Blossamise. Simon Robert Armitage is an English poet, playwright, musician, and novelist. He was appointed poet laureate on the May 10 '20 '19. And so my friend, Nettie, and her kids, her husband, they saw this book and they thought of me last year, because of my seasonal offerings, like my wife circles and blossoms. And I often travel close to the metaphors of the natural world with my offerings.

And so this poem, this book of poems called Blossamies, it was a it's a selection of poems, published in collaboration with Faber. The book includes illustrations by the celebrated artist, Angela Harding. And this was used last year at spring equinox in 2024 on World Poetry Day, which is close to the spring equinox. And it was featured at Blossom Week, which was the twentieth through the 04/28/2024, and this is in The UK. And there's a collection of poems and haikus that are inspired by the blossom season as part of this Blossomies project, hence the name Blossomies.

It's really beautiful. It's short. It's sweet. So I started reading it, and I took it with me downstairs to play with Harvey. And during our play sessions on Sunday, we I was able to read some of the poems.

She's used to me kind of playing and in the the the swing of play. Sometimes we'll have a little bit of soft music, like peaceful piano music. Sometimes we'll, you know, jazz up the vibe with, like, Wicked. We did Wicked, which was really fun. Our whole scenario in the basement this last weekend was we were on a pirate ship.

She was the captain. I was I was the co captain. We had our pirate kids, the girls, the dolls. We had all kinds of other helpers on the boat. And the whole basement, it has, different stations, a couch.

It's got, little gymnastic mats and cubes for her and, you know, hanging monkey bars for her to swing from and a gymnastics single parallel bar for her to work on as well. And we were just in this fantastical fantasy, and we used Wicked as part of teaching the girls to fly, the pirate kids. And so, of course, I wanted to have poetry class during our school when the girls had to go to school, and then Harvey coined it pirate poet poetry. So there's pirate poetry. And I was able to read at least half this book and remind her that we read haikus when she was younger, and that I even have a video of her writing haikus.

We were talking about them when she was just two and a half three when she first started using a pencil. It's very cute. I will put this beautiful podcast episode with links, at my newsletter, at my substack so you can see all this. So I'll include that with the show notes. And, it was really beautiful to read this to her, and I so I I I clicked an audio and recorded some of it, and I really wanted you to hear it.

So in honor of the emerging spring, we have several weeks still. The equinox of spring is approaching. I gotta double check. Spring equinox, 2025 is let's see. Spring, March 20.

So we've got just several more weeks, three and a half ish weeks. So I would encourage you to consider the idea of blossoming, but still stay where you are. Be right where you are. Enjoy the last few weeks of winter. And enjoy this fun audio and pay attention to me reading to Harvey and which words actually caught her attention.

It's super, super cute. I'll see you on the other side of this audio. Next poem is called Birthday. Nature told me to close my eyes for the big surprise. I had visions of wild woods in shindig mood, blossom as fireworks, and fancy dress, insects off their noodles on high grade pollen, planet Earth in party mode, petals frizzing and frothing like pink champagne.

Then nature walked me into the car park, lifted the blindfold, and showed me a cherry tree fit for the age. Embarrassment. Rage. Alright. We have another haiku with illustrations, Kavi, Julie, and Harvey.

Can you see? Yes. Here's the haiku. Cherry in full bloom, defeathered by Friday's storm, fresh sparrow, hawk strike. Yes, Kavi.

I wanna write a haiku. Oh, you do? Well, we can do haikus sometime soon. Harvey and I wrote haikus when she was younger. Do you remember that?

Nope. Did we actually Yes. We did one spring, and you got my pencil. I'll show you a video later if you wanna see it. Okay.

That's all the food. Oh my gosh. We're having a picnic. Wow. You really prepared a lot of food.

I know. Thank you. You're welcome. Mhmm. Wow.

Look at this beautiful illustration. I see a fish. I see people talking. It's two pages full. Wow.

Can I ring read one more poem? Yes. Okay. This is the last one. Julie, don't forget to brush your teeth before you eat.

Oh, wow. Hey, Julie. So this poem is called folk song. You lost your sparkle at the fair. Apple, cherry, blackthorn, pear.

Watched every petal disappear. Among the glamour and the glare and the dodge them cars and flying chairs and candy floss and dancing bears, the goldfish floss and dancing bears. The goldfish and the silverware. Apple, cherry, black thorn that we're still pirates. Right?

I do. I, I, We're still pirates running the ship here. That's why we picked Nick very close to the pirate ship. Right. Okay.

We're almost done with this poem, and that's done our poetry lessons. Glitz glitz and glitter in the air. Can you say glitz and glitter? Glitz and glitter in the air. But blossom neither here or there.

Apple, but blossom neither here or there. Apple, cherry, blackthorn, pear. The woods beyond were sparse and spare. The branches empty handed bare. No glint of blossom anywhere.

Apple, cherry, blackthorn, pear. You walked the planet for a year, slept in the jaws of winter snare, nailed at a campfire like a prayer. Can we make a campfire? Campfire, yes? Yeah.

Yeah. But, let's pretend today it's also, Julie and Coving's birthday. Oh, okay. Apple cherry black horned pear then woke one morning in a rare illuminated atmosphere. The trees wore flowers in their hair.

Julie, look what I got you. Oh. Where's the cat? Where's the cat? Like the cat for coffee.

I know what you mean. The trees wore flowers in their hair, and on the hill, you stopped to stare at blackthorn apple cherry pear as blossom blossomed everywhere and everywhere and everywhere. Apple cherry blackthorn pear. One We have one final haiku, and then we're done with our poetry lessons. Ready?

Ignite the beacons, news of the black thorns return, shuttles hill to hill. Everyone see the illustration? Woah. Woah. Right, girls?

Thanks for coming to poetry. Poetry and picnic. Yes. Yeah. But where's the cats for Kavia and Julie's birthday?

Well, let me look. I'll look for the cats. Isn't that just absolutely precious? Candy floss and dancing bears. Yeah.

We've always she's always flossed her teeth with me, which is funny. I I always flossed, and she wanted to have me pull off a piece of my mint floss, and she would taste it. I remember one time she was chewing. She liked to chew on it when she got a little older, like, maybe four. And then one time she chewed it down to, like, a little, you know, piece of gum like ball, and then she accidentally swallowed it.

And it was so funny because her face was startled, and she's like, I swallowed it, uncle Blue. And I'm like, oh goodness. I'm like, is it in your throat? She's like, no. I think it's in my stomach now.

I'm like, well, it's gonna come out your poop. It's gonna be alright. I love poetry, and I wanna share with you a couple words from the author's note from Simon Armitage. He says, blossom insists that we take notice. It demands our attention.

But in its in its melancholy transience, blossom also tells us something about the cycle of life being a metaphor for our own finite existence. Right now, it's still a few more weeks of winter, and I'm willing to bet if you were to look at the trees, the branches, especially those trees without leaves, you can see little buds. And the future of blossom and blooming and flowering is living there. And life is so short, and I would love to encourage you this week, this afternoon, this evening to seize the day and to seize the hour, the shift, if if it's the morning shift, the afternoon or evening shift, to power down, to turn off distractions and notifications, and be present. There's so much value and in offering your presence to other people.

I'm gonna finish by reading a Mary Oliver poem to you. It's very beautiful. It's very much connected to this viral mindfulness invitation, a VMI for you to really settle in, drop your roots, drop your shoulders, take a deep breath. There's still plenty of time before spring comes. And I'm gonna read to you this beautiful Mary Oliver poem called Long Afternoon at the Edge of Sister Pond.

As for life, I'm humbled. I'm without words, sufficient to say how it has been hard as flint and soft as a spring pond both of these and over and over and long pale afternoon besides and so many mysteries beautiful as eggs in a nest still unhatched, though warm and watched over by something I have never seen. A tree angel, perhaps, or a ghost of holiness. Every day I walk out into the world to be dazzled, then to be reflective. It suffices.

It is all comfort along with human love, dog love, water love, little serpent love, sunburst love, or love for that smallest of birds flying among the scarlet flowers. There is hardly time to think about stopping and lying down at last to the long after life. To the tenderness yet to come when time will brim over the singular pond and become forever. And we will pretend to melt away into the leaves. As for death, I can't wait to be the hummingbird.

Can you? Thanks for listening. Before we head out, I wanna make sure you know that my first of four y circles starts on Tuesday, March 4, which is just under a week, and there's still a couple seats available. I would be more than honored to have your presence, your attention. The y circle is a small group experience designed to nurture healing and growth within a supportive and intimate space.

There's anywhere from three to six, of you. I call you my soul siblings. And we meet for ninety minutes a week. We practice guided meditation together. We do timed writing practices with topics.

It's a practice I love that gets our wild mind out onto the page, onto paper. And the core listening and sharing circle is sixty minutes each week. Each of you gets ten minutes to share. And in that ten minutes, you can include your reflections, experiences, and things you're currently working with and on or interactions with me. We focus on wise and deep listening, and people hold space for you.

It's a powerful six weeks. It will cross us through the threshold of spring, which is my new year. I would love to have you. Follow the link in the show notes. Head over to my website, ViralMindfulness.com.

It's all pretty intuitive. And grab one of those seats, and I'll see you for Winter's Edge six week wide circle. And if you can't make that one, know that there are three other circles on the tail, Sundays starting March 16 for five weeks, Mondays for spring's edge, which which starts later in the month of April, Mondays, April 21, Mondays starting on April 21, and then a Tuesday morning again starting April 22 for five weeks. I would love to have you and I'll see you next time here on the podcast.