Friday, September 22, 2006

The First Day Of Autumn

Blackberry Eating
By Gallway Kinnel

I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unfbidden to my tongue, (1.)
as words sometimes do, certain, peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinceh open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry...eating in late September.

Welcome to autumn! :)

-OndineMonet
"Blackberries"
San Francisco, California
September 20, 2006
Late Afternoon

1. edit: unbidden

8 comments:

Robbie said...

Darn it! I'm craving blackberries now. As a matter of fact, I have a picture somewhere of a bowl of blackberries for a blog entry I have yet to write about how awful the ones at the grocery stores are compared to those off the vine.

Karen Funk Blocher said...

I love that blackberry shot! For us in Manlius, the wild black raspberries were ready in laste July and August. I used to get all scratched up and covered with berry stains, going around and picking them. Yum!

Anonymous said...

Hello Carly.......I am glad you included this poem in your blog. I will try to include it in one of my entries in my journal. I LOVE AUTUMN !!!!!!

Thanks for sharing this. Take care.

Suzanne R said...

Oh my, I wish the blackberries on the vines I cut today weren't too overripe to eat, in order to make up for my having to go to the trouble of clearing them away from my propane tank. The berries are lovely here in August but the vines are taking over my place and I am determined to plug away at clearing as many out as I can, meanwhile praying that I'll be able to figure out someone to hire to get rid of the worst of them! I know, blasphemy when compared to your sweet poem, but the blackberries are truly a major problem for me right now.

Anonymous said...

yummy lunch!
we have the same placemats too.
i'm glad you did follow-up and are taking care of you. me, i am following my own advice and urging to you when you first had that care and will be getting squished in three weeks. whoo-hoo!
enjoy your lunch!

Becky said...

Hmm! Reminds me of today. We went raspberry picking. Had the results of our labor over ice cream tonight. :-)

Paul Elledge said...

Just so you know, it's "unbidden," not "unforbidden." ;-)

Carly said...

Hi Paul

Thanks for catching my error... see edit above.

Carly :)