Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Tuesday poem #34 : Joe Blades : where is tomorrow’s wine?



annapolis valley vines hang
                        heavy
with grapes waiting
            to freeze
before they can be
harvested

all this nor’easter rain
melts chocolates in pockets
turkey and plum pudding
picking crews hang
            christmas with family

wish to be in outside lane
moving slow with fresh
                        ice wine
but weather is not
            cooperating
bottles empty
too warm
            not truly winter
so living is unsettled
with an eye to outside
and anticipated arrival
            of a cold snap
            for their picking
gainful employment
24-hours max
            start to finish
wine pressed onsite
            estate bottled
before next month’s
            pruning begins


Joe Blades lives in Fredericton, NB, Canada. He is a visual artist–writer, educator, producer–host of the award-winning, long-playing Ashes, Paper, & Beans community radio program at CHSR 97.9 FM, founding publisher of Broken Jaw Press Inc., and a Past President of the League of Canadian Poets. The editor of ten collections, and the author of seven poetry books, including Prison Songs and Storefront Poetry (Ekstasis Editions, 2010), Casemate Poems (Collected) (Chaudiere Books, 2011), and three books in translation, his newest book, Iz knjige koja se ne zatvara, is translated by Tatjana Bijelić into Serbian, co-published by Art Print in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Broken Jaw Press, in Fredericton, NB.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

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