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| Andrew Wynn Owen. Photo © Belinda Lawley |
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Raspberries
Available, but not for long,
They look like lesser fruits of Eden.
So sweet they force you into song
And fill your head with dreams of
hedon-
istic gymnasts born in Sweden.
These luscious buds should be illegal,
Reserved for emperor and eagle.
Yes, don't they make you salivate?
That danglingness, their regal nods
To passers-by as if to state
A bloodline running back to gods.
You'd like them to arrive in squads
And drag you screaming to a cell
With sticky fists on each lapel.
These friendly triffids catch your eye
Across a busy motorway
And beckon you to have a try.
Their trimming is décolleté
With underbrush for négligée
And crimpled leaves that make
you think
Of Cleopatra draped in mink.
The provenance this clustered fruit
Can claim is unlike any berry:
Venusian origins impute
Its power to party and make merry.
When Charon chauffeurs in the ferry
The only bribes to turn his head
Are juicy, globular, and red.
— by Andrew Wynn Owen, from Raspberries for the Ferry
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Emma's thoughts. I love this poem for many reasons, not least of which is that raspberries are also my favourite fruit. They deserve a hymn, because they're wonderful: a great shade of pink, sweet and tart, and delicious. I also like the layers of menace eased into the poem, which create a sexy kind of tension between the speaker and the raspberry: they 'force' you into song, should be 'illegal', and, err, 'drag you screaming to a cell'. Is fruit erotica a thing? With Andrew Wynn Owen at the helm, it should be!
Your thoughts. A couple of great comments this week! ThatBookGirl had the only natural response to the poem, as far as I'm concerned: 'This poem makes me want to go and eat all the raspberries in my garden, but now I think of Swedish gymnasts when I chew them!' I hear you, ThatBookgirl.
Courtney Landers had a similar response, and gave a helpful blow-by-blow account of her reading experience: 'The first time you read it you think ‘oh that’s cute, I like raspberries too', the next few times you start to catch the multiple layers, and then each time you read it you’re giggling because ‘did he just say THAT, about RASPBERRIES?!’ She gives an in-depth description of her favourite bits in the comments below, so I'd highly recommend you scroll down to read it in full.
And the winner of this week's 'Most Thoughtful Commenter' prize is... Courtney Landers!
Your thoughts. A couple of great comments this week! ThatBookGirl had the only natural response to the poem, as far as I'm concerned: 'This poem makes me want to go and eat all the raspberries in my garden, but now I think of Swedish gymnasts when I chew them!' I hear you, ThatBookgirl.
Courtney Landers had a similar response, and gave a helpful blow-by-blow account of her reading experience: 'The first time you read it you think ‘oh that’s cute, I like raspberries too', the next few times you start to catch the multiple layers, and then each time you read it you’re giggling because ‘did he just say THAT, about RASPBERRIES?!’ She gives an in-depth description of her favourite bits in the comments below, so I'd highly recommend you scroll down to read it in full.
And the winner of this week's 'Most Thoughtful Commenter' prize is... Courtney Landers!
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| Raspberries for the Ferry |
<-- POEM CLUB #6: 'Brown Leather Gloves' by Oliver Comins
--> POEM CLUB #8: 'Night music' by Kristen Roberts
This poem makes me want to go and eat all the raspberries in my garden, but now I think of Swedish gymnasts when I chew them XD! Seriously, beautiful and fun poem whose rhyme rolls deliciously around the tongue like its subject fruit. I love the words 'danglingness' and 'globular', they are very expressive. It is lovely to see a fellow young poet doing so well, keep it up Andrew!
ReplyDeleteI adore raspberries, but I’ve never thought about them quite this way. ‘Raspberries’ is, for me, the kind of poem that has to be read through multiple times. The first time you read it you think ‘oh that’s cute, I like raspberries too’, the next few times you start to catch the multiple layers, and then each time you read it you’re giggling because ‘did he just say THAT, about RASPBERRIES?!’.
ReplyDeleteWhat I like most about this poem is what I see as not menace, but subversiveness. At first it seemed each verse had a half-and-half contrast between sweet and subversive. Reading it a few more (delightful) times revealed cheek in almost every line. I giggled at the more ‘modern’ references to flexible Scandinavian gymnasts, sneaky plants beckoning you to play highway chicken, foliage reminiscent of fur coats and lingerie, and a kind of raspberry sadomasochism (Fifty Shades of Pink?). (Writing them down like this makes these hints almost shocking, but they’re somehow entirely appropriate in this clever poem!).
The allusions I liked most of all though are those to the involvement of these divine fruits in history, myth and apocrypha. They’re linked to the power plots of Roman emperors and Egyptian rulers, the indulgences of the gods, and dodgy dealings in heaven and hell. I feel like the raspberries have less of a passive role than they would seem to play – they’ve got their ‘sticky’ fingers in the pie.
Not having read the rest of this pamphlet I can only surmise that ‘Raspberries for the Ferry’ would also be full of clever subversiveness, a bribe for the readers’ praises and graces.
Hello Courtney,
DeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts! I'm delighted to let you know that you've won a copy of the book - drop me an email with your address so I can send it over! editor [at] theemmapress [dot] com
Best wishes,
Emma