Raspberries . . . Blueberries (2 poems)

“I took a berry I liked.” Runo 50, Kalevala

WILD RASPBERRIES

Nothing so fragile

as wild raspberries.

The globules separate

at merest touch,

fall into the hand

in sun in a patch

on the largest gem

in the world,

Jasper Knob in Ishpeming,

near the Cambrian shield,

spread in long grass,

white pines, white birches.

She says that’s why

I like it here so well.

You just go out

to run the dog,

get waylaid by raspberries.

Every trip ends up

with treasure.

BLUEBERRIES

we crouch then sit

so profuse the tiny berries

two-handed we pick

pluck soft-fingered

in this patch on moss

that one under cedar

farther off the path

by rock with lichens

we wander and don’t speak

much but we hear chickadees

and the wind soft and august

blue smudged by fingers

plops into the pail then falls

soundless and it fills

Publication history:

Piirto, J. Wild Raspberries. (1981). Okooch Mt. News.

(1983). Postcards from the Upper Peninsula. Pollock, SD: Pocasse Press.
(1995). In A Location in the Upper Peninsula: Collected Poems, Stories, Essays. New Brighton, MN: Sampo Publishing.
(1999). Silent Midnight Snow Comes Down: 25 Years of Christmas Poems. Ashland, OH: Sisu Press.
(2008). Saunas. Woodstock, NY: Mayapple Press.

Piirto, J. (1983). Blueberries. Raspberry (3). (1983).

(1983). Postcards from the Upper Peninsula. (1983). Pocasse Press.
(1995). A Location in the Upper Peninsula: Collected Poems, Stories, Essays. New Brighton, MN: Sampo Publishing.
(1999). Silent Midnight Snow Comes Down: 25 Years of Christmas Poems. Ashland, Oh: Sisu Press.
(2008). Sauna: Poems by Jane Piirto. Woodstock, NY: Mayapple Press.