poetry . Green Striped Melons

The latest column in the American Life in Poetry project reminded me that ripening happens not just in sunny days, but in rain and starry blackness as well. And, as the color deepens and becomes more varied on the surface of a time- and weather-worn life, we have hope that the lush and vibrant flesh beneath is becoming sweeter still–just waiting to crack open and spill out it’s fragrant juice. Here’s to American poets. Here’s to the poetry all around us. Here’s to a weighty life…

American Life in Poetry: Column 227
BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

Jane Hirshfield, a Californian and one of my favorite poets, writes beautiful image-centered poems of clarity and concision, which sometimes conclude with a sudden and surprising deepening. Here’s just one example.

Green-Striped Melons

They lie
under stars in a field.
They lie under rain in a field.
Under sun.

 

Some people
are like this as well–
like a painting
hidden beneath another painting.

An unexpected weight
the sign of their ripeness.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright (c)2008 by Jane Hirshfield, whose most recent book of poems is “After,” Harper Collins, 2006. Poem reprinted from “Alaska Quarterly,” Vol. 25, nos. 3 & 4, Fall & Winter, 2008, by permission of Jane Hirshfield and the publisher. Introduction copyright (c)2009 by The Poetry Foundation.  The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.  We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.