Poets sure love fruit. Think of Robert Hass's blackberries and Pablo Neruda's lemons. Here at the Indiana Review slush pile we encounter a lot of poets writing about fruits, and for some reason, over the last couple of years, we've seen a lot of pomegranates.
And why not? There's pomegranate martinis, pomegranates in Hades; it's a mythical, sensuous fruit. But too many pomegranates can become a cliche.
And now there seems to be a new trend toward persimmons. I approve of persimmons. After all, they grow well in Indiana, and persimmon pudding is a traditional Hoosier dish.
But now I fear persimmons may one day go the way of the pomegranate...and become a fruit poem cliche.
Do not excise all fruits from your poems; that would be foolish. But use them sparingly and with caution!
--Hannah
1 comment:
Hmm...I'm a Hoosier, but I've never heard of persimmon pudding. In fact I didn't know there was such a thing as a traditional Hoosier dish. I must be a non-traditional Hoosier. For that matter I never knew persimmons were a fruit. I would have guessed it was some kind of flower. Like Woody Allen, "I am at two with nature."
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