Apple Blossoms
Out of the Dust
By Karen Hesse
Smore By Brett K.
Apple Blossoms
Ma
Has been nursing these two trees
For as long as I can remember
In spite of the dust
In spite of the drought,
Because of Ma’s stubborn care
These trees are thick with blossoms
Delicate and
Pinky-white.
My eyes can’t get enough of the sight of them.
I stand under the trees
And let the petals
Fall into my hair,
A blizzard
Of sweet-smelling flowers,
Dropped from the boughs of the two
Placed there
In the front yard by Ma
Before I was born,
That she and they might bring forth fruit
Into our home,
together.
What Does it Mean?
In the second stanza Billie Jo is happier and thinking in the present. She is admiring all of the apple blossoms and thinking about what the apples could do for them.
Why Did I Chose this Poem?
How does it Add to the Story?
What makes this Poem Powerful?
The 3 R's
- The lines in each stanza go from small to big or big to small.
- The repetition of the phrase "In Spite" makes you know how hard it was to grow anything there.
- The words white and sight rhyme as well as hair and there
Why did I Choose this Song?
Prelude No. 21 by Chris Zabriskie is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Source: http://chriszabriskie.com/preludes/
Artist: http://chriszabriskie.com/
Works Cited
Works Cited
“Apple Blossom - in April.” Wikimedia. Wikipedia, 26 Apr. 2014. Web. 9 May 2016. <https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Apple_blossom_Apfelbl%C3%BCte_02.jpg>.
Dried up corn stalks caused by drought. How Does Your Garden Grow? History, n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://history.nd.gov/exhibits/gardening/images/0351-06-Dried-up-corn-stalks-caused-by-drought.jpg>.
Dust.2. Modern American Poetry. Illinois English, n.d. Web. 10 May 2016. <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/dbimages/dust2.gif>.
Dust Storm Approaching Stratford, Texas Dust bowl surveying in Texas. Infosys. Government, n.d. Web. 9 May 2016. <https://infosys.ars.usda.gov/WindErosion/multimedia/dustbowl/big/theb1366.jpg>.
Lange, Dorothea. An abandoned farm north of Dalhart, Texas, 1938. PBS. PBS, 2012. Web. 9 May 2016. <http://www-tc.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/media/photos/s4383-lg.jpg>.
There were huge dust drifts during the Dust Bowl. WiseGeek. Conjecture, 2003. Web. 5 May 2016. <http://images.wisegeek.com/dust-blowing-among-trees-and-dry-ground.jpg>.