Hi Gill,
H'm, peach chutney - it sounds delish! (Me, I like mango chutney with 
cheese! Tangy with a crumbly or a cheddar type cheese!). And whole peaches 
in a jar? Sounds like something M&S might put on their shelves for 
Christmas. Yummy!
And the poem?
Great to read!
I'd never thought of the scent peaches might have in a bowl before! When I 
read that I began to realise there would be other things happening that 
owuld surprise me too!
I'm not sure about the "unfamiliar" tabletop... Unfamiliar to the peaches, 
perhaps, but not to her?
I find the end of the poem really tasty? A great unanswerable question! Yet 
a question that prompts an answer, and it's an answer only the reader can 
give!
Bob

>From: Gill McEvoy <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: new post: peaches for pickling
>Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 20:51:25 +0100
>
>Dear Poets,
>In the southern USA they pickle peaches for serving with pork/chicken etc, 
>as we pickle onions or make chutney.
>
>Here's my poem and would be glad of feedback, thanks.
>
>Peaches for Pickling.
>
>They are wedged in the bushel basket,
>their fat dumplings piled high,
>packed like a crowd in a stadium.
>They cheer the sun's ball on its arc
>from rise to fall, their ripe scent
>surging like a chant of summer.
>
>She pours them on an unfamiliar tabletop:
>like crowds that exit by the wrong gate
>they scatter, scurry, hesitate
>then shiver to a stop as if they were
>oddly cold inside their felted skins of fur.
>
>How will they feel tonight
>when her knives and pickling pans are done
>and each astonished fruit regards itself,
>bald and naked, in the mirror
>of the jars?
>
>
>It's Spring here at last, a wonderfully warm day and all the neighbourhood 
>out gardening (except me!) I hope it's Spring there where you all are.
>Sincerely,
>Gill McEvoy