Member-only story
Galway Kinnell Has Been “Blackberry Eating”
Juicy verses with walking iambs and juicy language
We are at the exit gate to May — officially leaving National Poetry Month, but the celebration of poetry continues forever with the introduction of Galway Kinnell’s poem, “Blackberry Eating”. This little poem packs more punch than tropical fruit juice, but with all the rhythm and imagery of an excellent written verse.
Like a marbled shiny bunch of blackberries on a crisp morning, the burst of flavor from this poem was more of a delayed reaction. While reading Kinnell’s beautiful verses about eating blackberries, I realized there was so much more happening.
I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
The first five lines of the poem paints an overview of what the speaker loves to do: go out in late September to pick and eat blackberries. Yet, the speaker does not just pick these particular berries. They (the speaker), nearly reveres these blackberries by comparing the stalks of the berries to artists who earn a “penalty” for knowing the “black art”.
and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost…
