Today, I could stand it no longer. I raced to the grocery store in the rain. You see, over the past couple of weeks I read two very different literary works that had me hungering to purchase specific food items. For what purpose? Photography followed by consumption. First I read Elizabeth Langosy’s article, A.S. Byatt’s Plums. In a nutshell, the article explores the challenge for writers in conveying sensory experiences to the reader. It is a powerful read accompanied by visually striking images of plums that have yet to leave my mind. I couldn’t find them in the store today, but thankfully I did find green beans. You see, I had also read Mary Oliver’s poem, Beans.
In Oliver’s same book, she writes of walking through blueberry fields and of gathering honeyed blossoms with crispy seeds. But in the grocery store, the blueberries did not jump into my basket nor did bottles of bright gold honey. I did buy one red pepper and a bit of garlic to stir fry with the green beans.
After one last look for plums, I found an asian pear on sale. FYI, later at home, after a bit of slicing and dicing, that made a tasty snack!
I also found sitting alone at the bottom of a shallow basket, a passion fruit. In my literary frame of mind, I was instantly reminded of the women’s travel magazine called Passion Fruit that I had found very inspiring when I first dabbled at travel writing. I bought it and, once home, immediately sliced into it.
I have since learned that I probably should not have sliced it open just yet, but there is a part of me that is not sorry to see such pale beauty.
“The leaf has a song in it.” For that line alone, from the poem What Can I say, I am grateful to Mary Oliver.
Words + Images 