Sunday, July 19, 2009

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

5 comments:

  1. Thank you. I enjoyed this very much. And for you:
    http://theforestroom.blogspot.com/2009/07/redemption-of-peach-poem.html

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  2. I like that poem very much. Thanks for sharing :)

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  3. Yes,
    And the peaches are ready at Indian Cave Orchard in New Market for those in the Knoxville area. I am charging 1.75/lb for homeschool families which is less than I charge at the farmer's markets. If you come out to New Market to my orchard I will charge $1.50/lb only. Also, if you buy more than 20lbs I will drop price to $1.50.

    Now, my peaches are better than what you will find in the store, they are picked at the last possible moment tree-ripened that they can be without damage. Sometimes you will need to let some of them set a day or two but the peaches are excellent this year.

    I also will have a few Asian pears this week, (July 19).

    Brother of Sarah, John

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  4. Whoops,
    My phone number is 865.228.9789 for those who don't know about Indian Cave Orchard, and I often can deliver my peaches to Sarah for pickup!

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  5. That is beautiful!!! Oh, what I'd do for some fresh peaches. Not exactly an Alaskan crop. :)

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