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Column 259

Green Pear Tree in September

Intro by Ted Kooser
03.07.2010

Wis­con­sin writer Freya Man­fred is not only a fine poet but the daugh­ter of the late Fred­er­ick Man­fred, a dis­tin­guished nov­el­ist of the Amer­i­can west. Here is a love­ly snap­shot of her father, whom I cher­ished among my good friends. 

Green Pear Tree in September

On a hill overlooking the Rock River
my father’s pear tree shimmers,
in perfect peace,
covered with hundreds of ripe pears
with pert tops, plump bottoms,  
and long curved leaves.
Until the green-haloed tree
rose up and sang hello,
I had forgotten. . .  
He planted it twelve years ago,
when he was seventy-three,
so that in September
he could stroll down  
with the sound of the crickets
rising and falling around him,
and stand, naked to the waist,
slightly bent, sucking juice
from a ripe pear.

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2003 by Freya Manfred. Her most recent book of poems is Swimming With A Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle, Red Dragonfly Press, 2008. Poem reprinted from My Only Home, Red Dragonfly Press, 2003, by permission of Freya Manfred and the publisher.
Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.