Reminiscent of Mary Oliver's A Thousand Mornings and Belonging by Amanda Thomson, Songs from Fern's Pond unfurls a story of an un-tamed, beautiful place-and one woman's choice to spend the last chapter of her life making it her home.
She works as she lives—
sensing for patterns,
taking the rough with the smooth,
the dried with the fresh,
the tangled with the simple,
the scarred with the unblemished.
She's dazzled but undaunted
By the complexity of possibilities.
– Poetic Excerpt from Songs from Fern’s Pond
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At age sixty-two, Fern started a new chapter of her life.
Recently widowed, she found a piece of neglected acreage above the Snake River on which to build a home, forge a community—and renewed purpose. On the land around Fern’s Pond, she nurtured a vineyard, an abundant garden, and a small farm of sheep, one cow, a goat, and chickens. She befriended wild ducks and harvested trout in her waters, and she used the materials that grew around the pond and springs to weave baskets—unique works of art that captured the elegance of the natural world.
Songs from Fern’s Pond is a collage of poetry, letters, and prose that captures the universal resilience of the human spirit through the humor and courage of a woman who fearlessly pursued the life she dreamed of. A duet of text between mother and daughter, it’s a transcendent vision of the rough, wild, and beautiful landscape of the heart—and a reminder that every chapter is worth living to its fullest.
Fern Rosenlof Pothier
The basket maker at work.
Lambing in winter.
About the Author
Sheryl Pothier Harmer grew up in southern Idaho, the proud great-granddaughter of pioneers in the Sun Valley / Ketchum area. She holds a doctorate in education with a focus on social and emotional learning (SEL). Her career in education ranged from the classroom to the principal’s office, culminating in the award of National Distinguished Principal from Washington State in 1998. She went on to serve as director of program development for a not-for-profit, creating internationally recognized SEL curriculums for schools; worked as an educational consultant; and was a cofounder of the edtech Aperture Education. Sheryl now lives and writes in Seattle, surrounded by her family and nature.
Sometimes,
the humility of being a lonely servant
to the earth
in the grandeur of
the universe
brought her to her knees.
– Poetic excerpt from
“Songs from Fern’s Pond”