The Orange

The Orange

The Jaffa oranges are in

But you must buy the crate

You must take your chances

 Some years so sweet

Winter weeps at the memory

Some years astringent tears

I will find a friend

Gamble, and split a crate

Sweet or tart

It is no matter to the grocer

Reviews

[Marie]

I love this wonderful poem and the title drew me in to read it because when I was growing up in Ireland, we looked forward to the arrival each year of Jaffa oranges which came wrapped in a special paper in a timber crate. They were the juiciest, sweetest oranges of all and with a beautiful flavour not found in any other orange. I haven't seen them in a very long time in Ireland in recent years, sadly. A wonderful idea to buy the crate and half the oranges with a friend! I would very gladly halve my crate with you if I lived near you, dear Delmar. I love this poem, so charmingly inked and Thank you! for the trip through reading your poem back to yesteryear where sweet memories of Jaffa oranges still linger. Lovely work! Thank you for sharing...

[Delmar Cooper]

Thanks for your gracious comment. I have only seen them in the small wooden crates. I worked for a while at a produce house and was astonished at the variety of inported fruits and vegetables we bought and sold. Made the world seem smaller to eat a Chilean plum in winter.

[Marie]

How lovely wo work at a produce store, Delmar. I can only imagine the assortment of produce which you bought and sold and yet, eating a plum from Chile in Winter makes the world seem a little smaller. In Ireland, we get seasonal fruits from all over the world too and now we seem to get them all year round. Thank you so very much for your very kind and informative comment, Delmar. Wishing you a very blessed and beautiful day to enjoy. Have a wonderful new week ahead too...

[Zatoichi]

Great poem, sweet AND tart.

[Delmar Cooper]

Thank you for reading and taking time to comment.

[Red Brick Keshner]

Apples, oranges, wheat and tare. Head, shoulders, knees and toes. In our dealings with others, the whole package is what we get no matter how we may focus on just an aspect of our friends and acquaintances. It really is crazy some times, we go out with certain somebodies for specific activities, thus compartmentalising our relationships and never achieve a "whole significance" of any one of them. Or so it seems. But that's just me. Thanks for sharing, Frederick.

[Delmar Cooper]

Thanks for reading and pausing to comment.

[roarke]

Great metaphor. I especially like the last line. Actually, I liked ALL the lines. I think, in poetry/prose, its difficult to accomplish both an open ended conclusion and an appropriate finale at the same time. But, you nailed it Delmar. Smooth, sublime, echoes in the ethers.

[Delmar Cooper]

I will never pretend to be a poet, but a poem-like substance can gel into a solid story from time to time.

[CD Campbell]

What's up Big D? I like how misery loves company. Finding a good friend sure does make the good and the bad a tad tolerable throughout life's BS. Good oranges, bad oranges. I feel like the older I get, the crop seems to be more of the latter than the former, but who knows, my memory of what is a great orange has changed. I just don't have it in me at the moment to make a fruit joke. Winter weeps at the memory is a great line. I do think the grocer cares though. He set this system up and it is what it is. Hope you've been well.

[Delmar Cooper]

Nice to see you again. Don't blame the grocer, it's a wholse deal.

[JE Falcon]

Ah, an Orange by any other name shall not taste as sweet. But this poem with name, Orange, does.

[Delmar Cooper]

Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment. Much obliged.

[Gee]

Very much the same with folk, they may look as if okay but ya never know what is going on inside :)
Enjoyed the read

[Delmar Cooper]

I am glad that your read it and that it had enough effect to cause you to tell me. I do not understand poetry myself. I do not understand it at all.

[Travis Gibson (poetic h..]

The power you've given so few precise, unassuming lines. Truly a piece the reader leaves feeling a little wiser, or frantic to find either a friend or a crate of oranges to split, and gamble on. Well done!

[Delmar Cooper]

Thank you for reading and for your comment. A friend, yes always look for that.

[Laz K.]

The title intrigued me: "Can oranges be considered poetic?" I'm glad I did click on this poem, because it is a reminder to me that anything can be the subject of art. Who was it that said that everything is interesting if you look at it long enough? I don't know, but they were right. There's a lot going on in this poem when I think about it: fruits may represent something sweet we desire, but you never know what you'll get (sweet or not) and having no choice but taking a chance on things and just see what happens. Finally, there's the other side addressed - the seller who is indifferent to our wants.
These are some of the thigs this poem did to me/for me, so thanks for the orange - it was sweet after all.

[barleygirl]

I love this. It's so symbolic of life. Lots of people want some kind of guarantee, but sometimes we just have to take the gamble & savor when the results turn out good. Being housebound, I buy all my produce online from a nearby place that does a pretty good job filling my orders, but sometimes it's old or damaged. I just accept it when a few things are crummy becuz most of it is more succulent & fresher than I could get in the grocery store anyway! We must be open to some disappointment becuz the rewards are so great! (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[Delmar Cooper]

Thanks for reading and your remarks. The Perils of Produce I suppose.