Blackberrying
The poet uses strong imagery to show a transition of one’s life. The poem begins as the narrator is picking blackberries in a secluded area. The process is very fun and the speaker happily reports picking blackberries as big as one’s thumb. The berries even happily form “a blood sisterhood” with the person. These bonds of friendship and fun mark one’s life. The second stanza moves on to the second stage of one’s life. This is the point where one is beginning to really acknowledge that their death is approaching. The stanza transitions from a normal bountiful harvest to finding only a bush overrun by flies. It ends as the speaker approaches the sea. The final stanza represents the last stage of one’s life. The speaker explains that she came upon a place “that looks out on nothing, nothing but a great space.” This nothingness is the hopeless that often takes over one’s life near death. All of these powerful life images serve to paint a picture of the poet’s transitions through life.