Raspberries
We’ve been eking out the last of the frozen berries at our house. Every summer we buy flats and flats of them at the farmer’s market, some of which are gobbled up fresh on the spot. My husband enthusiastically freezes the rest, along with the wild blackberries we gather out at the Sandy River delta, to last us the winter. We’re halfway through the last gallon bag of raspberries, and they’re all the more delicious because I know they’re almost gone.
So today I’ll use this space to bring you a guest poet, my good friend Betsy.
—————————————-
the way to pick raspberries is this:
–
crouch down as if in homage to
the thorny raspy canes
and leaves like cats’ tongues spilling upwards and outwards from
their espalier of wire and post.
–
crouch down in the half-shade
of serrated leaves,
gaze up into the green gloom
and you will see them           there           and there:
the fruit hanging in the crosstangle of leaf and stem;
–
the unripe fruit melon green and hard,
the overripe fruit bruised dark and dropping
unannounced into the dust between the rows,
weighted with juice and swelling seeds.
–
the perfect imperfect fruit,
firm and pink-red,
dangling in the dappled light above your head,
is seen best from below, where you squat
almost at the roots, face upturned.
–
you rise on aching thighs and stretch your arm
again and again into the brambles
to slide each berry from its pale hull,
deliberate and repetitive,
until your bucket or basket or box
is full.
–
above you the lithe branches bend against the blue sky.
above them clouds move across the sun.
a goldfinch flies over, singing his bright
black and yellow song.
Betsy Miller
Posted: May 4th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
What a terrific poem!
Posted: May 5th, 2010 at 1:38 am
So beautiful!
Posted: May 5th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
I love all of the summer berries, and cannot wait (though I have 2 years! to wait) for my own berry plants to be mature enough to safely harvest.
Blueberries and alpine strawberries!
Posted: May 5th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Ooh, I know why you are friends with Betsy – what a beautiful facility with words has she!
Posted: May 5th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Ooh, I know why you are friends with Betsy – what a beautiful facility with words has she!
Posted: May 5th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
Thank you for sharing Betsy’s poem! She’s a talented poet. I hope we can see more of her work.
Posted: May 10th, 2010 at 7:46 am
It reminds me of harvesting berries at my parent’s house when I was a child – wearing long sleeves on the 4th of July, and still getting long shallow scratches from the raspberry canes. It reminds me of the old milk jug my mom cut the top off of, and strung a ribbon through so we could wear it around our necks to pick double-handed.
And it reminds me that I still have 1/4 lb of frozen blueberries left in my freezer from last summer! It is time to use them up.
Posted: May 11th, 2010 at 7:27 am
Your breakfast picture made me smile – after a week of yogurt with frozen blackberries picked while running our dogs at the Delta, I switched over to raspberries this morning. I’m staring at a glass jar on my desk that looks nearly identical to yours.