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Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Poetic Fruits

At read.write.poem this week we were asked to write poems about food, and more particularly, Jill discussed writing about fruit.

I was going through the photos of our trip and came across a bunch of photos of blackberries which combined with a column on language in our Saturday newspaper to inspire this poem (bear in mind, it is a first draft only):

Blackberries

In country lanes we pause in the rush
from one castle to another, and gather
blackberries.
We ignore scratches to reach
for the juiciest branches,
learn to judge which are ripe and sweet.

The Hopi, they say, see the world differently
– see “wave” and “flame” and “meteor”
as verbs. Let us celebrate
the impermanence of blackberries.
Consider “blackberry” as a verb,
meaning “to ripen” “to gather water
and sunshine” “to fall into reaching hands”
“to stain lips and fingers purple"

8 comments:

Jo said...

Gorgeous!

sister AE said...

lovely and powerful

I think I'll add to the definition of blackberry: "making one brave in the face of scratches and bug bites"

Crafty Green Poet said...

you've captured the essence of blackberry very well here. The ones in the photo look wonderfully succulent

Kay Cooke said...

A beautiful poem Catherine - send it somewhere!

Anonymous said...

This *is* beautiful. I love the ending so much. It's a simple, concise, lovely poem.

Bobkat said...

Very nice. i used to go blackberrying when I was younger.

The berries were also used to dye clothes traditionally too as your poen suggests!

Michele sent me to say hi.

Sarah Jane said...

Gorgeous - I'm hungry for berries now.
Michele sent me to send my love.

Anonymous said...

Very tempting. I love Blacberries. Those are good for controlling the sugar levels too.


Here from Michele's today!


rooted