#Newthisday Writing From My Photo Stream
Maple Leaf Viburnum
Wild Blueberries
This morning's news: wild blueberries are beginning to form on the countless bushes that line Rocky Narrows trails. And the question arises: when will they ripen for picking this summer?
The answer comes from one of my favorite summer poems,"Ripening," by Alice Fogel, a New Hampshire poet:
“Nothing but time-when it is time-
can make the blueberries ripe, their skins
plush as lips, deeply filled with the colors
of bruise and breath and bliss:
Nothing can rush this, this slow swell
of growth, this lush and lavish splash
of fruit, this bloom and blush and burst.
You can’t feed it anything to speed its time-
nothing generosity or economy, hope or desire, can do.
What softens them is all that, too, can soften you: . . . ”
