Blackberries
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
BLACKBERRIES
Packed in this segmented fruit is a kind of truth
peculiar to jellies and jams
and to the times
I ran through
unleashed, in rain.
In those days, I believed in resurrection.
It was first when
we came back for a visit to the coast,
when you were just showing with our only child,
that I saw again
the sawmill village of my youth.
It was not the same,
and today I find myself asking
if we ever shared
enough parts of our fragmented lives
to assure a wine
dry and full as the blackberry wine
that we drank that day.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
The poems in Blackberries were for the most part
written in the 1990's and the early 2000's. The title
poem is a declaration of the poet's intent to let his
poems mature prior to publication, an action
occurring a decade later. The poems in this
volume differ from his earlier work in that they are
more intensely personal, technically more
accomplished, and more consistent in voice, rhythm
and sound. The stories are still there. The most
developed series of poems concerns his son's
suicide.
About the Author
Mr. Carlson has been writing poetry for 50 years. His aim has been to create poems in which emotions are honest, descriptions accurate, images evocative, and language accessible. Some of his poems are long and dense; others short and spare. They are by turns powerful and delicate, thought provoking and playful, solemn and funny. Sharing his experiences, observations, and thoughts as a son, student, brother, lover, father and friend will call up your own experiences, observations and thoughts. Written aloud, they should be read aloud to be fully enjoyed. The words are to be felt on the tongue.
Born the son of missionaries in