to a pear

Gold cherry

By Di_Hard

Sat, 05 Nov 2022
  • 4557 reads
40 comments
 

on the top shelf

of our Co Op's reduced to clear section

alone

an economy bag of pears

knobbly green and slightly bruised

as a Martian footballer's knee caps...

 

there is a millisecond when each life is perfect

in a pear -

too early, it is hard, with no experience to savour, flavourless

too late and it is pulpy dull

as existence without surprise

 

but if it's there, at its peak

a pear is Heaven, and because it was -

the one I had just now - with golden juice

trickling down my wrist

the lusciousness of it, almost wholly sweet but 

elusive sharp-shone through and through, like

taste was new

 

I had to write this, to remember

knowing bliss

 

 

 

 

Certificate U
Poem

Comments

Submitted by Di_Hard on

:0) Hullo Catherine

Of COURSE I said yes!!! I have never been so flattered in all my life :0) He should read your poems though.

 

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

THANKYOU!!!  Wow, that is so great to hear, no one has ever wanted one of my poems before :0) Of course you can have it,if you think it would be ok! I don't know anything about copyright I am afraid. How much seems right to you?

ps, please read the poems of this writer too, if you are looking for new work? https://www.abctales.com/user/catherine-poarch

 

Submitted by animan on

Hi there, apologies for not responding sooner to your positive reaction to my message but I've been a bit tied up with other stuff since; anyway, copyright adherence is a bit of a faff but I always seek to be copyright adherent as non-adherence is theft under the law, and rightly so. However, what I can offer in terms of rates is quite minimal as my budget for this venture is v. limited and my application for the level of use of your text I am proposing is currently quite limited as well, as described in my previous message. So, I was thinking in terms of a 'tenner' for its use on this occasion. If you feel that is derisory and unacceptable, I can understand that and I am happy to drop the idea. If, however, you think it's worth a punt nonetheless, we can negotiate again on any more developed use if any further opportunities should arise, such as making the materials available to a broader audience.

For your reference, this is what the Society of Authors says about rates for poetry:

Permission for brief illustrative quotations outside the scope of ‘fair dealing’ will usually be granted without charge.
Fees are usually charged for quotations of any length in an anthology. Our minimum fee is £75.

Poetry – £155 for the first ten lines, £3 per line for the next twenty lines, £1.95 for the next twenty lines thereafter. Rates are normally reduced if the poem appears in a literary or scholarly journal, in an anthology which contains more than 40 poems in copyright, or in a book with a print-run of less than 500 copies.

Source: https://societyofauthors.org/Advice/Rates-Fees

(I note it doesn't actually say anything specific to use within online lessons.)

Hi Catherine, thanks for your encouragement of this idea. I'll certainly check out your work in due course.

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

£10 is fine :0) Thanks!

 

Submitted by animan on

Okay, great, thank you, I'll see if I can effect a transfer through the good people at ABC Tales.

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Happy to help animan - just email me at claudine@abctales.com - it's a wonderful poem isn't it?

 

Submitted by animan on

It is indeed. That's very kind of you Claudine. I've got to go out in a minute but I'll email you tmo if that's okay. Thanks again.

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Tomorrow is fine - and thank you for your very useful information on poetry rates etc. I'm sure it'll be helpful for many of our poets

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Animan, thankyou so much! The money has gone through fine. I am very grateful both for your offer, and the trouble you went to, to draw up the form. I do hope the poem does what you want!

And Thankyou to Claudine for all your help, too!

 

Submitted by animan on

Great stuff! Glad the bit of money came through okay. And yes, thanks to Claudine for faciltiating this bit of business.

 

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