The seasonal urge is strong in poets. Milton wrote chiefly in winter. Keats looked for spring to wake him up (as it did in the miraculous months of April and May, 1819). Burns chose autumn...Some poets, like Wordsworth, have gone outdoors to work. Others, like Auden, keep to the curtained room. Schiller needed the smell of rotten apples about him to make a poem...And so it goes.
~Helen Bevington
Happy Poetry Friday, everyone! Guess what I did today? Got my ears pierced! I felt like a kid again, haha. (They'd been pierced before but I let them close years ago because they kept getting infected.) Hoping to have better luck with them this time.
Today's poem is Laurie Lee's tasty "Apples." Ms. Lee said, "I was walking down a backstreet in Stroud and I was stopped by a schoolgirl and she said "You're Laurie Lee ain't ya?", and I said, "Yes". She said, "Did you write a poem called 'Apples'?". I said, "Yes, why?" and she said, "Our teacher made us learn it!" I had to bribe her with a Mars Bar before she'd let me go." The girl might have been crabby about it, but what a beautiful poem to learn by heart! I'll bet she appreciated it later.
Apples
by Laurie Lee
Behold the apples’ rounded worlds:
juice-green of July rain,
the black polestar of flowers,
the rind mapped with its crimson stain.
The russet, crab and cottage red
burn to the sun’s hot brass,
then drop like sweat from every branch
and bubble in the grass.
They lie as wanton as they fall,
and where they fall and break,
read the rest here
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Marcie Flinchum Atkins has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Marcie!
12 comments:
"as wanton as they fall..." Love this. It reminds me that apples, food, was first wild.
I'm loving the poem swap. Thanks again for organizing!
A poem about apples that an Upstate New Yorker can relate to. Love "apple's rounded worlds" in the first line and the details that follow. The "black polestar" surprised me. Such an interesting word, polestar." Thanks Tabatha for sharing this poem.
Tabatha, the last two lines of the poem are positively wonderful. The Poem Swap is off to a fun start with Marcie and my exchange. Thank you for the gift of organizing it again this summer.
Each part's a gem, Tabatha, yet calling to the "rounded worlds" as an intro is exquiste1 Thanks for the intro, too, & those poets' favorite writing times! Happy Writing to you if this is your own special time!
What a generously whole and satisfying poem Tabatha, I love the juicy green line, and I want to read more of her poems, thanks! ☺️
Tabatha, here's to your ears! I hope that this time even if they need help to heal, you'll have the right remedies to hand. Ms. Lee's apple poem beautifully combines a traditional register and a modern outlook, it seems to me--"hollow and whole".
Perfect summer poem, Tabatha. I live near Apple Hill (CA) and the hills are awash in russet, crab, and COLOR! Good luck with this new round of earrings!
Oh good luck with your ears! I hope the infections stay away this time. And thanks for sharing the apple poem - perfect for a summer day.
We still have one more apple crisp-worth of Arkansas Blacks left over from last October in the fridge drawer. I better get them baked before they wither away!
Tabatha, my daughter (as well as my sister) had a similar problem with pierced ears. My daughter found that surgical grade titanium (or ceramic) posts allowed her ears to heal up. Good luck!
Oh I hope the piercings do better this time. I also had to let mine close up because of infections. I think hypoallergenic earrings are the answer. At least I paid a bunch of money for that for my oldest and so far, so good.
Love the story, love the poem, and love that you got your ears pierced! Hope you have the best luck with them this time!
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