THE Victoria plums of the Clyde Valley were a special treat of childhood. Gillian Clarke, the Welsh National Poet, obviously shares the enthusiasm for the fruit, at its prime this month.
Her plum paean is a September choice in the splendid new compendium, A Poem for Every Day of the Year (edited by Allie Esiri, Macmillan Children’s Books, £16.99, hardback). There is material for all ages.
PLUMS
When their time comes they fall
without wind, without rain.
They seep through the trees’ muslin
in a slow fermentation.
Daily the low sun warms them
in a late love that is sweeter
than summer. In bed at night
we hear heartbeat of fruitfall.
The secretive slugs crawl home
to the burst honeys, are found
in the morning mouth on mouth,
inseparable.
We spread patchwork counterpanes
for a clean catch. Baskets fill,
never before such harvest,
such a hunter’s moon burning
the hawthorns, drunk on syrups
that are richer by night
when spiders pitch
tents in the wet grass.
This morning the red sun
is opening like a rose
on our white wall, prints there
the fishbone shadow of a fern.
The early blackbirds fly
guilty from a dawn haul
of fallen fruit. We too
breakfast on sweetnesses.
Soon plum trees will be bone,
grown delicate with frost’s
formalities. Their black
angles will tear the snow.
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