Friday, June 12, 2015

Poetry Friday - The Broad Bean Sermon

Today I'm thinking of gardens and summer and sharing a poem I came across while reading The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms by Mark Strand and Eavan Boland. This poem was in the chapter on the pastoral and I can't seem to get it out of my mind. That's always a good indication that I've come across a poem I need to share.

The Broad Bean Sermon
by Les Murray

Beanstalks, in any breeze, are a slack church parade
without belief, saying trespass against us in unison,
recruits in mint Air Force dacron, with unbuttoned leaves.

Upright with water like men, square in stem-section
they grow to great lengths, drink rain, keel over all ways,
kink down and grow up afresh, with proffered new greenstuff.

Above the cat-and-mouse floor of a thin bean forest
snails hang rapt in their food, ants hurry through Escher's three worlds,
spiders tense and sag like little black flags in their cordage.


I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup. Happy poetry Friday friends! 

7 comments:

  1. "Could I have overlooked so many, or do they form in an hour?" Perfect! It's like that with cherry tomatoes, too!

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  2. Ah, gardening poetry. My garden is tiny, but I shall read this to my eggplants anyway...

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    1. I read a lot of gardening poetry in the summer. Since I have a black thumb, it somehow makes me feel better.

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  3. I'm anxious for the beans in our community garden to get this big. They are currently under attack by the local rabbit(s)!

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  4. Oh my, delightful that those beans can be so much more than I have imagined, "each sealed around with a string". Thanks Tricia, my look at vegetables just rose a few notches.

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  5. Hahahaha. Love this poem. I am waiting for our beans to grow this tall. Then I'll remember your poem. :-)

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