Peaches

I was reading fellow homeschooler Sarah's blog today about picking peaches, and she was lamenting that she couldn't find a good peach poem to go along with her entry. I absolutely have to share on of my very, very favorite poems from one of my favorite poets, Li-Young Lee. In fact, he is my favorite living poet. This is the poem, from Lee's collection Rose, I was going to read for my brother's wedding, except that I guess he forgot that he asked me to read a poem. But he would understand why I picked this poem. We spent many, many summers of our life immersed in peaches, and he still does.

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