110
2013
NORTH CAROLINA L I T E R A R Y RE V I E W
number 22
Sanctuary, 2000 (acrylic on canvas, 48x96) by George Bireline, courtesy of Lee Hansley Gallery
Picking Blackberries on Yellow Mountain Road by Richard Betz
2012 James Applewhite Poetry Prize finalist It is Sunday morning and we should be in church Instead of here on this unpaved road, cups in hand, Picking blackberries on Yellow Mountain Road, The succulent hours hanging silent before us. We park the car under tall shade and wander so far That we have to backtrack what seems like miles, Going from patch to patch in dappled light: The dark alcoves where the gnats drone high and thin And the sun-drenched openings where the berries Are sweet and tiny-hard, only four or five nubs. Absorbed and silent we work in peace, returning only To pour our offerings into the common bowl. Fingers sticky and stained wine-red, we wander along, When suddenly we come to the mother patch, Surprised in a shady place we nearly overlooked, Big berries dangling dark beneath the spreading branches, So tender and ripe for our touch that they tumble Into cupped hands at the gentlest bump, like prayers Unexpectedly answered, blessings untrammeled by suffering, Hands filled to overflowing with humble blackberries.
Richard Betz grew up in New England but has lived in North Carolina for almost fifty years, first in Asheville and for the past thirty years in Highlands. His poetry has been published in college literary magazines, including those of Rollins College (where he graduated cum laude with a degree in English Literature) and Vanderbilt University, as well as regional publications in Asheville and Macon County. Recently retired from a long career as Town Administrator in Highlands, he now works as a real estate broker. He is married and has one daughter. George Bireline (1923–2002) was born in Peoria, IL. He worked as a scenery technician for Unto These Hills in Cherokee, NC, before earning his MFA at UNC–Chapel Hill in 1963. He taught in the School of Design at NC State University from 1955 until his retirement as Professor Emeritus in 1986. His works are in the permanent collections of the Lee Hansley Gallery, the Asheville Art Museum, the Ackland Museum of Art in Chapel Hill, and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC.