two poems about jam by poetjude

When we had more leisure than money (i.e. when my wife wasn't working) I used to love searching for cheap or free fruit for jam, and both these poems are very evocative of those days. I tend to agree with Chimpy that the blackberry one's better - the raspberry one has a rather jerky second stanza with too many "and"s whereas the one which Lib highlights is beautifully descriptive of autumn, and the inevitable wounds from blackberrying. But I'd prefer either of these poems to the ones you get in Tesco's.

Loved the line ' drank for days the smell of jam'. Remember when my mother used to make strawberry jam - and in our tiny two-up, two-down in the heart of London in the smokey '50s - the aroma lingered for so long - it was beautiful. Can almost smell it now! Beautiful poem - evocative.

Thank you all and thanks Chimpy for the Cherry jam. Might tackle all those 'and's and make my poem better and then rewrite it and see if you like and and and and and !!! And thanks to my friend J who inspired by saying that nothing is better than homemade bramble jam and if you pick the blackberries yourself it's spiced with the feeling that all those 'scritches and scratches' were worth it. The phrase 'scritches and scratches' just put the whole blackberry thing into my head in full colour! It is such a beautiful term 'scritches and scratches' 'scritches and scratches' 'scritches and scratches' 'scritches and scratches' Pure poetry mmmm I should have written into mine but that's plaguarism or however you spell it.

The very best poems are often engendered by someone else... I too am a fan of this poem - very tactile and evocative and very cherry-worthy! Took me straight there, walking with Dad and wishing he would pick me up too! I thoroughly enjoyed 'Rasberry' too but have to disagree about the 'ands'. I actually find both poems quite finished and didn't trip on anything... however I guess that's a personal thing. Check out my website: http://www.francesmacaulayforde.com