Friday, March 27, 2009

The other sort of heartache

The sweeter sort that you get when you read something that is not just beautiful, but so singingly true...

This poem captures the best kind of happiness so perfectly that I can practically taste it just reading these lines. I love the wishes that the speaker expresses in the third stanza, but it is the last stanza that makes my heart ache.

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

I first read this at Chloe's blog, heart-shaped morning.

Poetry Friday roundup hosted by Julie Larios at The Drift Record.

9 comments:

  1. This reminds me of another poem that I can't find at the moment. I'll try to track it down.

    xo,
    SL

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  2. Sarah Louise - Oh! Can't wait for it...

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  3. Here it is: http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/9581/

    (Wild Peaches, by Elinor Wylie)

    xo,
    SL

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  4. Now I have a longing for peaches...

    But this is a truly happy-making poem.

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  5. I love Li-Young Lee, so it was a delight to see this here. Lovely - thanks for sharing.

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  6. Sarah Louise - Oh, I really like that one.

    Summermoon - After I first read it, I couldn't stop thinking of eating dripping pale peaches in Massachusetts last August. The best ones I've ever had. Mm.

    Maya - Velcome! I have only read several of his poems online, but I reserved one of his books at the library. I am eagerly awaiting its arrival.

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  7. Poetry Friday is a lovely idea - I think I'm going to sign up :)

    --xo.

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  8. R. - YAY! The poetry army welcomes another blogger to its numbers! :)

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