{"id":88444,"date":"2015-07-31T15:48:25","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T19:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=88444"},"modified":"2017-07-31T15:06:46","modified_gmt":"2017-07-31T19:06:46","slug":"august-in-the-apple-orchard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/07\/31\/august-in-the-apple-orchard\/","title":{"rendered":"August in the Apple Orchard"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Charles-Fran\u00e7ois Daubigny, Orchard<\/i>, 1865\u201369.<\/p><\/div>\n

George Bradley\u2019s poem \u201cAugust in the Apple Orchard\u201d appeared in our Summer 1980 issue<\/a>. Bradley\u2019s most recent collection is 2011\u2019s <\/em>A Few of Her Secrets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It seems someone else was interested in order, too\u2014
\nThe squat trees edging away down the slope
\nIn wavy lines like rivulets\u2014but wasn\u2019t very good at it,
\nAnd left you to make the best of the result.
\nBut you can\u2019t very well tear up Uncle Jack\u2019s half-acre
\nOn a whim, and besides, the view isn\u2019t unattractive,
\nJust arbitrary. <\/p>\n

So you are sleepy and looking through branches at the sky
\nWhen a few birds fly in from the next field
\nAnd start singing a sad old song you have heard before,
\nLike the woman\u2019s voice out of a second story window
\nSinging, \u201cAm I Blue?\u201d Things are no better off next door.
\nThe sun is setting now behind a hill, and if you could squint
\nEnough, maybe it would look, red and round,
\nLike another apple.<\/p>\n

You wonder which person you think of first, seeing apples:
\nNewton, or your dumpy Sunday-school teacher, who said
\nIt wasn\u2019t necessarily an apple, probably a fig.
\nNow the crisis is coming again, the ripeness-gravity vectors
\nAre about to intersect. Any day, several men in shirtsleeves
\nWill climb little ladders and take pride in turning
\nAll the bruised fruit into mush.<\/p>\n

If you could just let well enough alone, it would all get by
\nIn its own haphazard manner, each apple making its own
\nThud, and the birds pecking at the soft, sticky stuff.
\nIf you could leave it alone, the trees would stump around
\nThe hillside, waving at each other and shrugging
\nThe gnarled growth of their limbs\u2014moving casually
\nIn the twilight, under a pale sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Bradley\u2019s poem \u201cAugust in the Apple Orchard\u201d appeared in our Summer 1980 issue. Bradley\u2019s most recent collection is 2011\u2019s A Few of Her Secrets. It seems someone else was interested in order, too\u2014 The squat trees edging away down the slope In wavy lines like rivulets\u2014but wasn\u2019t very good at it, And left you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1188],"tags":[13094,18987,18986,18985,18988,7221,165,12150],"class_list":["post-88444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-the-archive","tag-apples","tag-august","tag-george-bradley","tag-issue-78","tag-orchards","tag-poems","tag-poetry","tag-trees"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPoem: George Bradley\u2019s \u201cAugust in the Apple Orchard\u201d<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"July 31, 2015 \u2013 George Bradley\u2019s poem \u201cAugust in the Apple Orchard\u201d appeared in our Summer 1980 issue. 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