Before the heat of the day took hold, I padded down the hillside to the sweeping meadow where netting covers two fields of high bush blueberries. I was disappointed to see the jumble of wildflowers … Queen Anne’s Lace and Black-Eyed Susans … mowed down, but noticing horses in the paddock,
I understood the need for hay.
Ducking into the “doorway,” netting rolled and held aside with ties, I walked purposefully toward the back of the field. There was etiquette here. Pick what has ripened first. Be kind to the bushes. And don’t be loud.
This was an experience truly made better by the absence of words. The sounds of nature drifted randomly toward me: bird calls, berries hitting the bottoms of plastic pails, an insect batting its wings against the netting. Considerable time passed before I heard a human voice. Even then, voices were low and words, parsed. I made out phrases like, “How much do you have?, Look at these!, pies and scones.”
My head, usually racing with deadlines and “to do” lists, was clear of clutter. A sea of blue and green flooded in where stress had lived. Berries were abundant this year. I opted for low branches, laden with their heavy bounty.
I did not talk, though words formed in my mind, and I imagined how one might capture the experience as a haiku: three lean unrhymed lines of 5,7,5 syllables respectively.
Rain-kissed blueberries
sweet clusters among cool leaves
I reach, pluck, eat, smile
I learned that perfectly ripe clusters of blueberries could roll off their delicate stems with the tickle of a few fingers. Looking for the plumpest berries, I walked past bush after bush, picking impulsively. By this time, my toes were wet from the damp grass, and I could feel the sun climbing up my back and neck.
Sun-struck blueberries
sacrifice their perfume, bloom
then turn to fruit fast
With my pail half full, I made my way back to the car and paid for my prize. The scarcity of chatter reminded me to value the pristine paragraph without dialogue , the “pregnant pause” that adds suspense to drama, and the careful timing a comic uses to deliver his best lines. I guess that’s the Zen of writing – we can say a lot by saying nothing at all.
So, here’s an exercise. Without spelling out “I ate a bowl of fresh-picked blueberries,” describe aspects of the experience. Try:
- My teeth came down on blue pulp, sending a burst of summer across my palate
- Once-clean nails were now tinged purple with an ink we couldn’t replicate
- Something had packaged up sky and earth and rolled them into sapphires
- The blue ceramic bowl contained a mountain of matching color
- Cookie sheet nearby, I washed them and laid them out like pebbles on a beach
- Some will winter over in the freezer where summer will be locked in icy suspension
Enjoy… Savor … Edit yourself.
Tags: haikus, natural sounds, silence
Categories: Colorful phrases, Creativity, Editing, Environmentalism, Language, Reflection