Canadian Thanksgiving this coming weekend and, checking my larder, there’s much to be thankful for: the shelves are loaded. And a good friend has added to the store. I feel like a squirrel, all prepared for winter …
STORING PRESERVES
fruit picked at prime
–apples and apricots
washed, peeled, cored
–beans next to beetroot
sliced, diced, halved
–carrots beside cherries
brine and syrup brought to boiling
–cucumber then figs
lids and jars sterilized
–hazelnuts alongside onions
each slice, half or quarter
–parsnips paired with peaches 
steamed, sealed and stored
–peas juxtaposed with peppers
every jar neatly labeled
–plums close to potatoes
and put upon the shelf
–radishes near shallots
alphabetically in rows
–squash handy to tomatoes
nutritional virtues intact
–turnips neighbour to zucchini
——while poetry waits
first published in Love and Light
A Summer Father … terse, imagistic lines; … It’s not nostalgia that we experience but quiet, poignant grief. Richard Stevenson
1960willowtree 