And, this year, so bountiful in its gifts and treasures. My flowers – peonies, roses wild and cultivated, lilac bushes, fox glove – you name it – are flourishing. And, even wild strawberries, generally not worth the trouble of finding and plucking, whatever their sweetness, are showing up all over in abundance.
I had these, below, with their stems etc. removed, with a little yogurt and walnuts for dinner last night. Perfection! Thank you, Mother Nature. Thank you.
*I’ve added a poem below about aging, the passage of time, love, poetry, and more that mentions strawberries by – of all people – Erica Jong. Enjoy!
To Whom It May Concern - Erica Jong
In Autumn,
as in Spring,
the sap flows,
the sap wishes to race
against heartbeats
before the winter,
before the winter
buries us
in her usual shroud of ice.
I turn to you
knowing that
unrequited love
is good
for poetry,
knowing that pain
will nudge the muse
as well as anything,
knowing that you
are afraid, fettered
to a life
you do not love,
& so unfree
that freedom seems
more fearful even
than the familiar
business
of being
a grumbling slave.
I lived
that way
once,
& I know
that freedom
is its own reward,
that it propagates
itself
by means
of runners,
that nobody
gives it to you,
not even me
to you,
but that you
must seize it
with your own
two quaking hands
& pluck
the strawberry
it bears
in the green
ungrumbling
Spring.