Alexandrite-- Stiffen the Sinews, Summon up...Blood

[Alexandrite]

Steven-- thank you for your kind comments!!

Cookie-- you are AMAZING!!

[Alexandrite]

Seven Hard-Fast Rules for Blackberry Picking

Three miles south of a dip
in the road called Perkinsville, Indiana,
you’ll find R. R. 280.

Turn east. Travel two clicks
past the American Harvester,
past Guernsey grazing.

Half-paved, half-gravel--
this is the best place to learn
the rules of berry picking.

They are few and simple.
First, go early—leave the sizzle
of sausage in the kitchen,

the oven-fresh sticky buns—run!
If you hear cowbells,
the sun has climbed, as have mosquitos.

Second, be between the ages
of five and eleven.Younger--
it’s too dangerous.

Older—and your imagination fails
to see the briars of Sleeping Beauty,
the 100-year sleep, the Prince.

And when briars snag your skin--
and they WILL—you’ll get a whelp
or scab, but no magic, no delight.

Third, wear canvas shoes.
Flip flops are a disaster-in-waiting
if the bull ambles by.

Fourth, use a metal bucket.
It can be a sand pail, coffee tin,
or the galvanized pan

Granny used to feed the chickens.
There must be a “ping”
when berries hit the bottom.

Fifth, the “Three to One” Rule--
three for the pan, one for your mouth--
guarantees more berries for pies or jam.

Sixth, a cobbler is the best choice
for berries—second choice is pie.
And there should be ice cream

fresh from the churn, rich with vanilla.
And, Seventh, never, ever, regardless
of what trendy “foodies” may say,

do berries belong on a salad!

[JFN]

Alexandrite, good to read you again. Really enjoyed these lines from your first this month: a Mobius strip turned half-back on itself / before flaring out // the way little girls’ dresses flare / as they twirl and sing. What a fantastically strong image.

In Indiana SB-10 the solitary and short trimeter line of Caesar’s die is cast. followed by the much livelier meter of Roots torn from trees-- / sycamore, redbud, ash and beech— works wonderfully well at changing the reader's experience.

Liked this: Time erects no thorny barriers / age designs no barricade.

The haiku are fun, and work really well together, could be one poem.

You've made the three eye-catching thing in Daughter’s Room, Turned Guest Room eye-catching indeed. Each is a little statement of the daughter's character. There's something quite melancholic about the uninhabited room. You capture the feeling well.

Seven Hard-Fast Rules for Blackberry Picking is good, and the ending wonderful. Liked If you hear cowbells, / the sun has climbed, very much.

Many berries to be picked from your work this month. Good stuff.

John

[Dunc]

Alex

Hope things are good at your place!

Dancing in and over the cemetery, tripping the quiet path back to yourself, lamenting the vandals of the wild, becoming inimitable in your defiance of the calendar, haiku meteorology, letting wet critters in the house, night thoughts at the starlit lake, the empty room looking at the beanbag cat, the “Three to One” Rule - it's like listening to a concert recital, full of bright notes and old evocations.

Regards / Dunc

[cookala]

hi Alexandrite! Seven Hard-Fast Rules for Blackberry Picking is enjoyable and makes me want berries! I used to turn my nose up at fruit in salads, but recently I've tried and to my surprise liked quite a bit a raspberry dressing on mesclun greens with a mix of cranberries, oranges, slivered almonds and bacon as toppings.

[PClem]

Lake Webster - so lovely and melancholic, with just a hint of the political in the sounds are succoring/skirted in tones of alliance. or maybe that's just my current mind bent.
Daughter's Room - I know that feeling well.
Hard-fast rules - I just love this, you've captured it all very well, except the bandaids. Shouldn't there be bandaids or is that just for us oldies?

[Alexandrite]

JFN, Dunc, Cookie & Laurie--- thank you so much for you generous comments and support.
I was derailed last week-- no poems, no fluff-- so have major catching up ahead. I'm very envious
of your accomplishments!!

[Alexandrite]

Thirst—A Sevenling

Sometimes, drawing from the well,
the rope entangles, buckets tip,
rough walls can snag.

Results return empty—the bottom
remains dry, there’s no cool draught,
and the sun bears down

upon a blank page.


Watercolors—A Sevenling

Colors shape the scene
like blurred ink, a catsup stain,
streaks of pollen on one’s sleeve.

They edge the void--
brush tips sculptured, pigments
coerced, a careful hand,

until reason emerges.

[larryrap]

Xan,

Lovely work, whether human and touching like Daughter's Room, or fierce as in Indiana and Not, or facing nature in awe as in Lake Webster. Those are damn nice sevenlings and Haiku too. Waiting for more.

[5th column]

Hello! So many threads... so only time for a drive by fruiting to praise Blackberry Picking. I love it. The details of the bucket / pale and the sound of the ping are inspired. The flip-flops are good but the notion of the loss of imagination beyond a certain age is what really touched me. Poems like this, those seemingly written without trying are the ones I enjoy most; as though the N was addressing me directly or having a conversation I was a party to. Marvelous

[Scrow]

Hello!

Sorry it's a bit late in the day, but I wanted to stop by to say how much I enjoyed 'Blackberry Picking'. I love the humour, the mixture of romanticism and reality, and the nods to fairytale, family wisdom, 'real' food and contemporary trend. It was fun to read when I read it first, and even nicer to come back to.

Sarah
P.S I suspect my family would add two more rules - the 'taking of the stout stick' to hold back brambles for the littlest, and the 'don't pick too low because of dogs wee'