My brother has been reading poetry lately and said I should start doing the same. He says “it’ll be good for you” and of course he’s right. I came across this poem when thinking about a theme for this photo and what I wanted it all to mean. Because I am a huge lover of citrus I felt that was enough to inspire a small piece about my thirst for it. And then! I came across this gem of a poem that speaks so many truths of life. We could sit here all day and pick apart the verses but I think you understand the overall message.
I especially love the imagery of placing the grapefruit in a blue China bowl and then the peeling of it… you can really smell the aroma and taste the sweet-bitter tang it leaves on your tongue… just as life does the same.
Meditation on a Grapefruit
“To wake when all is possible
before the agitations of the day
have gripped you
To come to the kitchen
and peel a little basketball
for breakfast
To tear the husk
like cotton padding a cloud of oil
misting out of its pinprick pores
clean and sharp as pepper
To ease
each pale pink section out of its case
so carefully without breaking
a single pearly cell
To slide each piece
into a cold blue china bowl
the juice pooling until the whole
fruit is divided from its skin
and only then to eat
so sweet
a discipline
precisely pointless a devout
involvement of the hands and senses
a pause a little emptiness
each year harder to live within
each year harder to live without.”