The Nature Bible

Reflections

Thoughts · Daily Post

Blackberry Picking

 

 

A POEM BY MARY OLIVER

 

 

"When the blackberries hang

swollen in the woods, in the brambles

nobody owns, I spend

 

all day among the high

branches, reaching

my ripped arms, thinking

 

of nothing, cramming

the black honey of summer

into my mouth; all day my body

 

accepts what it is. In the dark

creeks that run by there is

this thick paw of my life darting among

 

the black bells, the leaves; there is

this happy tongue."

 

Mary Oliver (1935-2019)