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Think | Blackberries and Poetry

Iona Bower September 1, 2024

Blackberry season is such a memorable and brief time of the year, perhaps it’s no wonder writers and poets love a good blackberry metaphor…

Imbued with myth and symbolic meaning, the humble blackberry crops up frequently in both prose and poetry, as heavy with metaphor as the thorny branches are heavy with fruit. (See? It’s impossible to avoid!) The roots of blackberry symbolism go back to the Bible and beyond. The mortal who tried to ride Pegasus to Olympus in Greek myth falls into a thorny bush and is blinded. Similarly, Satan himself was said to have fallen into a blackberry bush when he was cast out of heaven. Christ’s crown of thorns is also said in some cultures to have been woven of blackberry branches. It’s easy to see why the blackberry has become linked with ideas of sin, or pursuing pleasure and of ultimate downfall. If you want to taste those sweet and juicy berries, you have to prepare to be scratched or, worse, find that when you get them home they’ve gone over and taste sour. Sad times. If you enjoy a blackberry metaphor as much as we do, here are a few thorny verses you might like to have a read of…

If you like the idea of blackberries as a dark, menacing presence try…

Blackberrying by Sylvia Plath

“Nobody in the lane and nothing, nothing but blackberries. Blackberries on either side…” she begins, and you can imagine the dark berries, glowing… growing and watching the narrator with their beady blackberry eyes. She describes them as “big as the ball of my thumb and dumb as eyes”, having clearly underestimated their malevolent genius as they reel her in. “Fat with blood red juices. These they squander on my fingers. I had not asked for such a blood sisterhood. They must love me.” Run, Sylvia!! Run from the blackberries, we scream silently. 

If you enjoy blackberries as a metaphor for the fragility of life try…

Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney

“Late August, given heavy rain and sun for a full week, the blackberries would ripen” and Heaney and his family would gleefully collect them, their palms “sticky as Bluebeard’s”. You can almost feel the disappointment coming, can’t you?... “Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour. I always felt like crying. It wasn’t fair that all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot. Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.” Ah… that’s life for you, Seamus, and especially the fleeting life of blackberries. 

If blackberries for you are a symbol of sensory overload and greed try…

August by Mary Oliver

Oliver describes spending “all day among the high branches, reaching my ripped arms, thinking of nothing, cramming the black honey of summer into my mouth.” You go for it, Mary. Don’t wait to take them home for crumble; blackberries are best scoffed greedily enjoyed in the moment. 

If you like to dance with the devil when blackberrying, you might like…

Blackberry Eating by Galway Kinnell

Kinnell gives the distinct impression of entering a pact with Satan as he makes his way among the brambles: “the stalks very prickly, a penalty they earn for knowing the black art of blackberry-making.” And like others before him (well, mainly like Eve in the Garden of Eden) he loses his innocence to the lure of fruit. “The ripest berries” he insists “fall almost unbidden to my tongue.” Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, Galway. That’s what all Satan’s Blackberry Minions say.  

If blackberries symbolise deep and real love for you, try…

The Heart Under Your Heart by Craig Arnold

Blackberries here represent the very real, unswerving sort of love that exists when you know someone completely, with all their thorns and foibles. Arnold tells us “The heart under your heart is not the one you share so readily so full of pleasantry & tenderness. it is a single blackberry at the heart of a bramble.” We’ll raise a jug of custard to that. 

You’ll find more blackberrying nostalgia in our feature ‘Down Memory Lanes’ in our September issue, which is on sale now.

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Photograph courtesy of Paul Harris, National Trust Images

How To | Get Started with Poetry

Iona Bower May 23, 2024

If you’ve ever felt like you’d like to read more poetry but weren’t sure where to start, or even fancied penning a few lines yourself, here’s advice on how to begin from Poet Laureate Simon Armitage

Despite it possibly being more accessible than many other forms of writing, being short and easy to dip in and out of, it seems that many of us don’t read much poetry beyond school. Where’s a good place for a poetry newbie to begin? 

“There are some really good anthologies, which are kind of portfolio collections that have lots of different poets writing in lots of different styles. I would probably start with one of those.

“There’s a very good anthology edited by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney called The Rattle Bag. 

“Bloodaxe have published a really great series of anthologies known as Staying Alive  that’s also really good [The collections are edited by Neil Astley and include Staying Alive, Being Alive, Being Human and Staying Human]. 

“I also like the anthology Andrew Motion edited when he was Poet Laureate called Here to Eternity. 

“So I’d try any one of them. Anthologies are like samplers really. You get a little bit of everything. If you find something you like, you might be inclined to follow up that point with more of that poet’s work. But I’d also say don't feel bad if you don't get on with a poem. Remember, it might well be the poem’s fault rather than yours.”

How would you encourage someone who has never done so to begin to write poetry themselves?

“I'd encourage them to, to collect words around the subjects they’re interested in first. So make yourself an inventory of words that you can use. Because when you’re writing poetry, there is always a better word; there’s always a word that will do a bit more work or have a better sound, if you can find it.

“Sometimes people come to me and say, ‘I want to write poems, because I've got something to say’. And I always think ‘Oh, no, that's no good’. You know, we've all got something to say. Even if it's just ‘I took the bin out today’. The point is, if you want to be a writer, it's because you want to work with language. You can have something to say as a painter. You can have something to say as a potter, and you can have something to say as a racing car driver, but you've really got to be interested in language to be a poet.” 

You can read more of Simon Armitage’s thoughts in our Wisdom feature in our May issue. Simon’s latest anthology, Blossomise, illustrated by Angela Harding, is available now, too.

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More poetry please…

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In Think Tags poetry, issue 143, writing, reading
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Photography by Alamy

Poetry | Carpets of Flowers

Iona Bower March 9, 2024

In our March issue, we look at outings where you can see flowers en masse. Here are a few poets who were inspired by the sight of hosts of golden daffodils, bluebells, heather and more.

Wordsworth’s Daffodils

We’ll start with the ‘daddy’ of flower carpets. “Continusous as the stars that shine and twinkle on the Mily Way, They stretch’d in never ending line along the margin of a bay. Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.” Wordsworth was wandering (lonely as a cloud) around Glencoyne Bay in Ullswater with his sister Dorothy when he spotted the daffs that were to inspire one of the most famous poems of all time. 

Browning’s Snowdrops

Always here early in the year and then gone so fast, Robert Browning’s snowdrops in ‘The Lost Mistress’ are all about the fleeting magic of those carpets of little white bells, using them as a metaphor by which to compare his neverending love: “For each glance of the eye so bright and black, Though I keep with heart’s endeavour, Your voice when you wish the snowdrops back, Though it stay in my heart forever.”

Stevenson’s Heather

Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Heather Ale’ is all about the dark magic of an ale brewed from heather and the magical sight of the carpets of blooms that made them. “From the bonny bells of heather They brewed a drink long-syne, Was sweeter far than honey, Was stronger far than wine.” The flowers, the ale and the legend are all intertwined in mystical fashion in this celebration of the wildness of the heather flower. 

Anne Bronte’s Bluebells

Bronte views the bluebells not in carpets but each as its own little person: “A fine and subtle spirit dwells In every little flower, Each one its own sweet feeling breathes With more or less of power.” The sight of one amongst a carpet of other flowers brings back to her memories of childhood and deep, and slightly disturbed, feelings. 


If you’ve been inspired to wander among the daffodils, too, turn to page 58 to read our feature, ‘Show Time’ by Cinead McTernan, in our March issue.

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Photography by Annette Dauphin Simon

For Fun | Spine Poems

Iona Bower October 18, 2022

Poetry can be found in the most surprising places. See if you can spot some in the wild

The wonderful thing about poetry is that you can find it anywhere. Look around you and you’ll find words creating images in billboards, graffiti, on cereal packets... A well-crafted poem is a thing of beauty, certainly, but ‘found’ poetry is somehow more magical: two words that accidentally rhyme, or mirror each other, or simply form a new meaning, having collided completely by accident feels like a happy secret. 

In our October issue, our ‘Gallery’ feature took images from the book Spine Poems by Annette Dauphin Simon (Harper Design). Spine Poetry (see the one above) began as a game in a Florida bookshop when Annette and her colleagues would compete to spot the hidden poetry in the spines of randomly stacked books. So the one pictured above reads:

Like my father always said

Listen to your mother

Listen to your heart

Listen to your Gut.

What’s for dinner?


Clever, isn’t it? You can read a few more of the Spine Poems from page 44 of the October issue. We were so enchanted by the idea, we thought we’d see what a Simple Things Spine Poem from the last 12 months would look like. For those who don’t keep their back issues lined up beautifully on their book shelves, here’s our Spine Poem taken from the magazine’s spines from last November to this October. 

Building Bonfires & making gifts

Taking time to live well

Candles & clementines

Snowdrops & seedheads

Bunches of flowers & sunny day cycling

Easter chocolate & spring adventures

Floral dresses & being outdoors

Salad days & summer nights

Lavender fields & lemon spritzers

Jolly sunflowers & going barefoot

Ripe tomatoes & trying something new

Birthday cake & gathering seeds


We’d love to see your spine poems, too. Do snap a picture and comment on our blog or tag us on your social media with your own Spine Poem pictures. 


Image taken from Spine Poems by Annette Dauphin Simon (Harper Design) which is released on 13 October and can be ordered now.

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Think: Emily Dickinson

Lottie Storey September 10, 2015

Emily Dickinson was a prolific poet, but most of her 1800 works remained undiscovered during her lifetime. After her death, her sister Lavinia found a cache of her work and set about publishing the poems, with their unconventional punctuation and capitalization, and their themes of loss, love, death and immortality.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers - (314)
By Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.

Read more:

From the September issue

Things to make you think

More Books posts

 

September's The Simple Things is on sale - buy, download or subscribe now.

In Think Tags books, reading, think, issue 39, september, poetry
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  Buy ,  download  or  subscribe   See the sample of our latest issue  here   Buy a copy of our latest anthology:  A Year of Celebrations   Buy a copy of  Flourish 2 , our wellbeing bookazine  Listen to  our podcast  - Small Ways to Live Well
Feb 27, 2025
Feb 27, 2025

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See the sample of our latest issue here

Buy a copy of our latest anthology: A Year of Celebrations

Buy a copy of Flourish 2, our wellbeing bookazine

Listen to our podcast - Small Ways to Live Well

Feb 27, 2025
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The Simple Things is published by Iceberg Press

The Simple Things

Taking time to live well

We celebrate slowing down, enjoying what you have, making the most of where you live, enjoying the company of of friends and family, and feeding them well. We like to grow some of our own vegetables, visit local markets, rummage for vintage finds, and decorate our home with the plunder. We love being outdoors and enjoy the satisfaction that comes with a job well done.

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