After Apple Picking

[ChuckB]

Just read this in class and I liked it....nothing to add.

 

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree

Toward heaven still.

And there's a barrel that I didn't fill

Beside it, and there may be two or three

Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.

But I am done with apple-picking now.

Essence of winter sleep is on the night,

The scent of apples; I am drowsing off.

I cannot shake the shimmer from my sight

I got from looking through a pane of glass

I skimmed this morning from the water-trough,

And held against the world of hoary grass.

It melted, and I let it fall and break.

But I was well

Upon my way to sleep before it fell,

And I could tell

What form my dreaming was about to take.

 

Magnified apples appear and reappear,

Stem end and blossom end,

And every fleck of russet showing clear.

My instep arch not only keeps the ache,

It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.

And I keep hearing from the cellar-bin

That rumbling sound

Of load on load of apples coming in.

For I have had too much

Of apple-picking; I am overtired

Of the great harvest I myself desired.

There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,

Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall,

For all

That struck the earth,

No matter if not bruised, or spiked with stubble,

Went surely to the cider-apple heap

As of no worth.

One can see what will trouble

This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.

Were he not gone,

The woodchuck could say whether it's like his

Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,

Or just some human sleep.

[isleseeya]

went apple picking with family last week ...have my own poem to now share :

 

through the fields

covered in sweat

we climbed trees

and overspent

 

apples , apples and more apples

most rotting on the floor

1.15 a lb at this farm

while 69 cents at the store

 

twisted and rolled my ankle

time after time

got chased by bees and flies

hands covered with fruit slime

 

at check out

we left with two heavy bags

my wallet much lighter

my ass starting to drag

 

The end

 

actually we did haved a good time

[chiefjay]