POETRY AS APOCALYPSE. OH, AND PEACHES.

Sharing today one of my favorite poems, because I have just eaten the first peach of the season...  and I am feeling grateful.

Peaches seem to have that affect on me. I wrote a poem for my husband that includes a peach called "Anniversary." (It appears in my book WHAT CAME BEFORE.)

But oh, read this one by Li-Young Lee:

 

From Blossoms

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

- Li-Young Lee

 

And now a quote from Mr. Lee:

 "There’s eclipse, covering, and there's apocalypse, uncovering. I think poetry provides a very important service. It uncovers our deepest identity. When we read a poem, that’s what we get – our deepest identity."

 - Li-Young Lee, A GOD IN THE HOUSE:Poets Talk about Faith 

For more poetic goodness, please visit Carol at Carol's Corner for Poetry Friday Roundup!