Connie Jordan Green
Ode to the Apple
When you enter the delicate
presence of the apple
you fall into the shine, through red,
yellow, wandering among pale shades—
and the tree, the dappled tree
of white and pink blooms,
cedar waxwings lined on a limb,
petals beak to beak down the line—
and the first bite of apple
like starburst on the tongue,
like seawater and salt
and the freshest peas spilled
from the pod, and when
apples fill a basket, when
ripe aroma rises from the pan
and cinnamon and brown sugar
bubble into winter’s delicacy,
when our bodies become the apples
gathered through our sweat,
when starlight and moonlight
are sentinels seeing us safely
on our way, and the apple waits—
oh delicate one, oh journey worthy
of a thousand years, we embrace you.
~
Connie Jordan Green lives on a farm in East Tennessee where she writes and gardens. She is the author of two award-winning novels for young people, The War at Home and Emmy, published originally by Margaret McElderry imprint of MacMillan and Simon Shuster, respectively, reissued in soft cover by Tellico Books imprint of Iris Press; two poetry chapbooks, Slow Children Playing, 2007, and Regret Comes to Tea, 2011; and a poetry collection, Household Inventory, 2015, winner of the Brick Road Poetry Award. Her poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies and journals, including previous issues of Still: The Journal. Since 1978 she has written a weekly newspaper column for The Loudon County News Herald. She leads writing workshops and teaches writing and literature courses for Oak Ridge Institute of Continued Studies.
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