This is for Bjorn’s Meeting the Bar segment of dVerse – a free verse sonnet. He gives Neruda as an example. I told Bjorn I was busy putting up food for the winter…he asked if I was going to do a sonnet on tomatoes. I don’t know if I did this correctly. I am not much on Western forms. so my volta is a senryu. I hope it works!
My Garden
The rain began in the spring and did not end
until Mother’s Day. My garden was planted late
But then it took off like a rocket.
Tomatoes, corn, butterbeans –
cucumbers and squashes in all the colors
of the rainbow. Fresh and lovely in taste
and soft and strong to the touch.
Now it is getting to the end of summer.
My garden is starting to show its age but
still it gives to me. Days spent canning
and pickling and freezing – just to have
the taste of summer all through the winter.
summer bounty thrives –
animals snack at night – I
work during the day
copyright kanzensakura
kanzen sakura 
Aug 18, 2017 @ 15:09:51
It is a beautiful poem and how wonderful it will be in the winter to remember the garden in full bloom when you are eating those lovely vegetables.
Aug 18, 2017 @ 15:36:41
Thank you! Nothing like opening a jar of home canned tomatoes and putting into a dish on the table to use as a side dish – lovely red in crystal bowl….heaven!
Aug 18, 2017 @ 15:25:07
Your earth mother connection to the land, as you coax its bounty from your garden is so wonderful to witness. And I like that you still honor the tradition of canning, something fading in the generations that follow us. We still fill shelves in the furnace room with Bell jars of goodness that will cheer up our winter meals and woes.
Aug 18, 2017 @ 15:35:39
Excellent. I learned how to do this all when I was just a young un. I do it to keep us through the winter but also now. to honor my mother’s memory. In a couple of weeks, I will start making green tomato relish – a nice sweet and spicy relish that is not chowchow – full of cabbage. It is hard work but so worth it. Your wife must be a wonder!
Aug 18, 2017 @ 16:15:02
I love how you did this.., a sonnet haiku combo… almost like a haibun but not. Love what you can do with harvest… (we have cooked some blueberry and raspberry jam from berries we have picked)…
Aug 18, 2017 @ 17:07:48
How wonderful to have jam from freshy picked berries. I froze a ton of blueberries this summer and will be making peach-lime jam next week. the peaches are late in coming this year so am doing this at the tail end of the stone fruit season. Don’t you just love the connection to the earth this gives?
Aug 18, 2017 @ 17:35:00
I like how you didn’t forget the animals snacking at night.
Aug 18, 2017 @ 19:31:02
Thanks Frank. I was taught ages ago to always plant enough to share – with humans and with critters. The bunnies, deer, raccoons, turtles….all of them get a snack.
Aug 18, 2017 @ 19:36:49
That’s a good harvest Toni ~ Am glad you are stacked up for the coming months.
Aug 18, 2017 @ 21:34:12
I am stacked up and will be stacking more. Next week Iwill be doing all kinds of pickles. the week after that I will be canning jars of a massive chicken based stew, known here in the south as Brunswick stew. Good stuff on a cold winter’s night.
Aug 18, 2017 @ 23:04:38
So much delight….loved the liveliness!!
Aug 18, 2017 @ 23:12:24
I am glad you did. A vegetable garden is a lively thing! 🙂
Aug 19, 2017 @ 01:12:08
I think this is a brilliant variation! And in a free verse sonnet, I am sure you are free to do whatever you like with the final lines. Also I very much enjoyed your subject matter. My mother, grandmother and aunts used to do this, and the memories are warming I did it too when my children were very young, but alas the kitchen is not my natural sphere, so I am happier thinking of others doing it than doing it myself! 🙂
Aug 19, 2017 @ 11:04:57
Thank you Rosemary. I grew up in the kitchen, literally. We’d be around the table while my aunts (teens at the time) read their lessons – usually Shakespeare or Browning or Frost. So…poetry and cooking came naturally. I am so glad this brought warm memories to you. And thinking of others is a good thing!
Aug 19, 2017 @ 01:24:09
“still it gives to me” Nature is all giving, all bounty…delightful. Love the senryu…
Aug 19, 2017 @ 11:02:40
Thank you! Yes nature does always give to us.
Aug 19, 2017 @ 08:41:34
A very peaceful read as I drink my morning coffee. 🙂 I especially like your senryu, “animals snack at night.”
Aug 19, 2017 @ 11:07:14
Thank you. That’s what I like about senryu, you can stick a bit of humor in there! But the bunnies, deer, raccoon, turtles, birds – they all love my garden. I was taught to plant extra to share – whether with humans or creatures. There is more than enough for all to enjoy.
Aug 19, 2017 @ 09:09:33
It also makes me think of the hard work and enjoyment we put into a marriage and then the rewards of a bountiful winter
Aug 19, 2017 @ 11:05:49
I never thought of marriage but you are absolutely right!
Aug 19, 2017 @ 14:44:00
Ummm. Tasting harvest here too. Farmer’s market this morning, corn still squealing from being plucked and the last of the chanterelle mushrooms. Heaven! Wish I still had a place for a garden. I miss it.
Aug 19, 2017 @ 14:53:13
Oh my…I love that – corn still squealing….I love fresh summer veggies – from my garden or some one else’s. Just as long as it is fresh. Wish I could send you a bushel basket of goodies
Aug 19, 2017 @ 14:55:27
Ooooo, me too! Enjoy, enjoy. I just got green tomatoes to make chutney — my project tomorrow. Makes my kitchen smell wonderful as it cooks.
Aug 19, 2017 @ 14:58:45
I love chutney. I will have a bunch of green tomatoes the middle of October just begging to be made into green tomato relish. This is my mother’s recipe she developed years ago – spicy, sour, sweet, salty – it hits all the tongue notes and is so good, especially when eaten with freshly fried chicken. No cabbage in it like traditional Southern chow-chow…just tomatoes, peppers, onions, spices. I’ll put up about three dozen pints and by the next summer, it is all gone again.
Aug 19, 2017 @ 15:08:48
Same for my chutney. Let’s trade recipes by email!
Aug 19, 2017 @ 15:11:49
Sure. Although mama’s “recipe” is more add stuff until it tastes right….but I could send enough to give you a general idea, esp. if you make chutney!
Aug 20, 2017 @ 03:30:42
This is a lovely poem and your garden sounds delicious.
Aug 20, 2017 @ 11:21:53
It is. Often for lunch I go out and grab a cuke and a tomatoe and a handfull of green beans or an ear of corn and munch it down raw with a glass of lemonade.