18 June 2006
The Broad Bean Sermon…
…is the name of a poem I recently discovered by Les Murray. It’s rather lengthy so I won’t quote it all, but as I’ve been harvesting some of my own beans today a stanza or two seems apt:
Beanstalks in any breeze, are a slack church parade
without belief, saying trespass against us in unison,
recruits in mint Air Force dacron, with unbuttoned leaves.
[...]
Going out to pick beans with the sun high as fence-tops, you find
plenty, and fetch them. An hour or a cloud later
you find shirtfulls more.
[...]
Wondering who’ll take your spare bagfulls, you grin with happiness
- it is your health - you vow to pick them all
even the last few, weeks off yet, misshapen as toes.
Hi there,
I’ve also been relishing the delights of a healthy broad bean crop this month, and I thought of Les Murray’s poem as I was grazing on lots of sweet fat beans the other night
I found your site when I Googled ‘Broad Bean Sermon’ - I love finding out about people who have similarly been bitten by the gardening bug.
It’s 37 degrees celsius here today in Melbourne (Australia) and I think the plants in my little garden may be a tad wilted by the time I get home tonight….
All the best as you head toward winter in your Birmingham allotment!
x Juddie
(20.11.07 @ 5:20 am)