{"id":16629,"date":"2011-06-14T11:00:49","date_gmt":"2011-06-14T15:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=16629"},"modified":"2011-06-14T11:40:10","modified_gmt":"2011-06-14T15:40:10","slug":"poem-pomme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/","title":{"rendered":"Poem: Pomme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Today\u2019s poem is a reimagining of Persephone\u2019s mistaken choice to eat a pomegranate in Hades\u2014every seed she ate condemned her to spend a month in the Underwold, leading her mother, Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, to mourn. For this reason, according to Greek myth, we have winter. Here, appropriately, the old myth is submerged in a bemused interrogation of female independence, and the ways that desire\u2014deep physical desire\u2014can threaten that.<\/em><br \/>\n\u2014Meghan O\u2019Rourke<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>POMME<\/p>\n<p>What kind of woman<br \/>\neats a pomegranate with her lover<br \/>\nwhile holding her own purse? <\/p>\n<p>I had been trying to get out<br \/>\nall day. Death had been boiling up in me<br \/>\nand I needed to walk into the golding<br \/>\nof redbud and burnishing ivy<br \/>\nclimbing the walls like a long unknotting sigh.<\/p>\n<p>He tore into the skin like a wolf.<br \/>\nAnd then no one, hardly anyone<br \/>\ncould step away from those<br \/>\ncold garnets pinned into flesh.<\/p>\n<p>We ate the whole thing<br \/>\nstanding up. I held my own<br \/>\nhalf like a cup and thumbed open<br \/>\nthe pale dividing sponge, and I plucked.<\/p>\n<p>He sucked and spit the seeds<br \/>\nthrough wet lips, tipped<br \/>\nand drank the pool of red.<\/p>\n<p>Then the leathered sacks<br \/>\nand brittling pulp.<\/p>\n<p>Stained lace, a centerless<br \/>\nform calling in low sun<br \/>\nand want, the onrolling landscape.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/racheljamisonwebster.blogspot.com\/\"><em>Rachel Jamison Webster<\/a> is an artist in residence at Northwestern University. She also edits the online anthology of international poetry, <\/em><a href=\"www.universeofpoetry.org\">UniVerse<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s poem is a reimagining of Persephone\u2019s mistaken choice to eat a pomegranate in Hades\u2014every seed she ate condemned her to spend a month in the Underwold, leading her mother, Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, to mourn. For this reason, according to Greek myth, we have winter. Here, appropriately, the old myth is submerged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[498],"tags":[279,165,2492],"class_list":["post-16629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-2","tag-meghan-orourke","tag-poetry","tag-rachel-jamison-webster"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Poem: Pomme by Rachel Jamison Webster<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"June 14, 2011 \u2013 Today\u2019s poem is a reimagining of Persephone\u2019s mistaken choice to eat a pomegranate in Hades\u2014every seed she ate condemned her to spend a month in the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poem: Pomme by Rachel Jamison Webster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"June 14, 2011 \u2013 Today\u2019s poem is a reimagining of Persephone\u2019s mistaken choice to eat a pomegranate in Hades\u2014every seed she ate condemned her to spend a month in the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-14T15:00:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-06-14T15:40:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rachel Jamison Webster\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rachel Jamison Webster\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rachel Jamison Webster\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/223cd036ff1e4aea7373581e64b0e752\"},\"headline\":\"Poem: Pomme\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-14T15:00:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-06-14T15:40:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/\"},\"wordCount\":241,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Meghan O'Rourke\",\"poetry\",\"Rachel Jamison Webster\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Poetry\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/\",\"name\":\"Poem: Pomme by Rachel Jamison Webster\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-14T15:00:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-06-14T15:40:10+00:00\",\"description\":\"June 14, 2011 \u2013 Today\u2019s poem is a reimagining of Persephone\u2019s mistaken choice to eat a pomegranate in Hades\u2014every seed she ate condemned her to spend a month in the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Poem: Pomme\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/223cd036ff1e4aea7373581e64b0e752\",\"name\":\"Rachel Jamison Webster\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b31ff68c03b0db647d1a48c6551a56ba06a6ec2db010a0a934ba4980fb23086?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b31ff68c03b0db647d1a48c6551a56ba06a6ec2db010a0a934ba4980fb23086?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rachel Jamison Webster\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/rachel-jamison-webster\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Poem: Pomme by Rachel Jamison Webster","description":"June 14, 2011 \u2013 Today\u2019s poem is a reimagining of Persephone\u2019s mistaken choice to eat a pomegranate in Hades\u2014every seed she ate condemned her to spend a month in the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Poem: Pomme by Rachel Jamison Webster","og_description":"June 14, 2011 \u2013 Today\u2019s poem is a reimagining of Persephone\u2019s mistaken choice to eat a pomegranate in Hades\u2014every seed she ate condemned her to spend a month in the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2011-06-14T15:00:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-06-14T15:40:10+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Rachel Jamison Webster","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rachel Jamison Webster","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/"},"author":{"name":"Rachel Jamison Webster","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/223cd036ff1e4aea7373581e64b0e752"},"headline":"Poem: Pomme","datePublished":"2011-06-14T15:00:49+00:00","dateModified":"2011-06-14T15:40:10+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/"},"wordCount":241,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Meghan O'Rourke","poetry","Rachel Jamison Webster"],"articleSection":["Poetry"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/","name":"Poem: Pomme by Rachel Jamison Webster","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-06-14T15:00:49+00:00","dateModified":"2011-06-14T15:40:10+00:00","description":"June 14, 2011 \u2013 Today\u2019s poem is a reimagining of Persephone\u2019s mistaken choice to eat a pomegranate in Hades\u2014every seed she ate condemned her to spend a month in the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/06\/14\/poem-pomme\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Poem: Pomme"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/223cd036ff1e4aea7373581e64b0e752","name":"Rachel Jamison Webster","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b31ff68c03b0db647d1a48c6551a56ba06a6ec2db010a0a934ba4980fb23086?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b31ff68c03b0db647d1a48c6551a56ba06a6ec2db010a0a934ba4980fb23086?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rachel Jamison Webster"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/rachel-jamison-webster\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16629"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17061,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16629\/revisions\/17061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}