Apple

Cherry

By onemorething

Tue, 30 Nov 2021
  • 1283 reads
8 comments
 

Poem 4 for Day 4 of National Tree Week - Twitter request from Sarah and Victoria for an Apple Tree poem - a lot of Wassail here and folklore. Wilding is a name for wild crab apple trees with their very sour pomes. 
 

We left an apple for the Apple Man,

not a sour pome on a wilding,

but sweeter, crisper, still bite enough 

till midwinter when, cutting down the late

serpentine knots of miseltoe, howling boys

will beat the trees with sticks. And for Gwen,

three rays of light, Awen, three drops of dew - 

no sacred garden or orchard or isle, no woman

to unname with defile, no story, no stain, 

for what remains, for the last fruit hung,

not fallen from a bough to be true. 

 

Image is from here: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edvard_Munch_-_Apple_Tree_by_the_Studio_-_MM.M.00080_-_Munch_Museum.jpg

 

Certificate U
Poem
Unclassified

Comments

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

I think Trevor said it all. How inspiring.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks Jenny, and for reading it! :)

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Apples still on the tree are the best sort of Christmas decoration :0) How birds must miss our old traditions that left fruit unpicked!I 

It all has a mystical feel, but I specially liked 

"the last fruit hung,

not fallen from a bough to be true. "

I felt this tied in with one of your October poems. But maybe is about Eve?

I have never thought hitting trees was a good thing, and 

"howling boys

will beat the trees with sticks. " brings up all my feelings of wrongness.

Liked this poem a lot, will want to re read it lots too

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Hi Di, thank you! Yes I was making a veiled reference to Eve - I was thinking of the Garden of Hesperides and other Isles of the Blessed with women and apple trees and serpents which later the Garden of Eden is transformed into a much more patriarchal tale. And I think the hitting with sticks was to do with banishing evil spirits - I think guns were fired in orchards for the same reason. I'm glad you liked it. :)

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I  am going to miss your tree poems!

 

Submitted by onemorething on

I'm sure there will always be tree poems! x

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

I was leaving this one til I'd done all the boring things on my list - nothing more beautiful than an old twisty apple tree - in full leaf, fruit and bare in the winter. You have fully done it justice in this piece - I'll google later about beating an apple tree - I'd never heard of it before. I have left several apples on the bough for the birds and have been meaning to take a pic as the russet looks so vivid next to the now bare branch - will do it tomorrow!

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks insert. Glad you liked it, hope you got your photo. :)