Beets
I’m distracted from my task
of washing late November beets
to look up all the meanings of “Red”
Challenged to describe
their ruby round bodies
more royal than rosy
more burgundy than blush
I cut off their tops
their blood mixes with water
to make a fuchsia-filled dishpan
sprinkled with dirt
More cherry than apple
my hands stained with juice
hold the plum of their color
crave the flesh of their fruit
___________Colleen Redman / Poets United
December 1st, 2018 10:21 am
love this exploration of red
December 2nd, 2018 10:47 am
I can see them. I love beets.a royal colour indeed.
December 2nd, 2018 10:58 am
I loved that you wrote right from where you are, the realness and the understandability of this poem. I really love beets, but I don’t think I would like to work with a LOT of them at one time. They are one of my favorite things to buy at a farmers’ market though. I like the golden ones too, and if the greens look good I also like the greens. I like the way you described both the beets and the process.
Thank you for, in my blog, saying you missed me. Often I think that I could just drift away ane no one would notice. Smiles.
December 2nd, 2018 12:08 pm
Vivid in the distractions of color 🙂
December 2nd, 2018 12:50 pm
Gosh this is lovely! ❤️ I love the idea of one “challenged to describe their ruby round bodies more royal than rosy more burgundy than blush.” ❤️
December 2nd, 2018 12:57 pm
I think you have to know beets to really understand how hard that color is to name… (I hope you pickled some of them)
December 2nd, 2018 1:04 pm
I grew them!
December 2nd, 2018 1:21 pm
Love the color red and your poem. 🙂
December 2nd, 2018 1:35 pm
Your exploration of beets and red had me shaking my head as I understood your fixation….I too have been fixated of late with beets.
December 2nd, 2018 5:01 pm
Love the way you walk us through the look and feel of your beets.
December 2nd, 2018 6:03 pm
What a wonderful homage to the commonplace beet!
December 2nd, 2018 7:20 pm
I love beets so naturally I was swept into this – and I totally love this poem – and adore the last stanza …
and ” hold the plum of their color/crave the flesg of their fruit” … is stellar.
I love the layered explorations here in this poem – more is the pity that the “forbidden fruit” wasn’t a beet!
December 3rd, 2018 1:04 am
How rich and lush it all becomes, with the many varieties of the colour.
December 3rd, 2018 1:07 am
Red has a strong character here with ‘ruby’, ‘royal’, ‘burgundy’, ‘cherry’ and ‘plum’ dispelling that mushy ‘rosy’ and ‘blush’ 🙂
A beautiful ‘color poem’.
December 3rd, 2018 2:32 am
This took me back over seventy years to when my mother also cooked and preserved the beets from dad’s garden. Loved the memory.
December 3rd, 2018 7:04 am
When I had a school time Saturday job at a greengrocers, one of my jobs was to boil the beets in an old copper around the back.
December 3rd, 2018 11:26 pm
A lovely tribute to beets! I learned recently that beet in Spanish is betabel. Our area grew a lot of the beets once upon a time.