A Thorny Issue

 

A Thorny Issue

Blackberry ripe
Mmm—each bite
But one cane
a thousand feet grows!
That thorny bush-
strong, persistent-
blocks the path, the garden,
the river, the lake, the view;
But oh, the tons of sweet berries!

Sheri Edwards
Poetry/Photography
09.01.24

Inspiration

This June, I stopped writing a poem every day, but my friend Betsy sponsors a “Poetry Post” every Sunday. So I’ll now write a poem a week on Sunday.

This one is a blackberry bush from Columbia Cove Park in Brewster, WA. It’s a beautiful park, perfect for a picnic with a swimming area and wildlife information. It’s right next to the city pool and an RV park.

I ducked through a break in this bush to get to the Columbia River beach area with shade from a huge tree. 

This is the Himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) — not native to Washington and not from the Himalayas. It’s called bullying blackberries and is a noxious weed. It’s thorny canes can grow over a thousand feet, with each bush having many that prevent access to the rivers and lakes because of their thickness and thorns, hence the thorny issue.

Washington State has a native blackberry bush that is actually much better tasting than these five-leaved bullying blackberries. They differ in that they have only three leaflets per leaf. The trailing blackberry (Rubus ursinus) is found west of the Cascades and is much less thick and pernicious than the bullying blackberry, although the tiny stickers make them difficult to pick.

I will probably be illustrating the blackberry to join my new Coulee Country Collection on Spoonflower, a collection based on and inspired by the flora of Washington State, especially eastern Washington.

Find also here: https://sheri42.net/2024/09/03/a-thorny-issue/

---

Reflect curiosity and wonder --Go boldly and scatter seeds of kindness...