a poem for Rafa

I am thrilled to announce that our lovely son Raphael has arrived in the world. I have been busy getting to know the little fellow and occasionally snatching some sleep - so have not managed to write so much as a shopping list of late. Luckily as well as the safe arrival of our son we have also been blessed by having my mum come from Australia to meet Rafa and help his parents out. She has  written a poem for Rafa - which I am publishing here with her kind permission.  

A story of blackberries

I came to Edinburgh to meet you,

To be family in real time and space

To breathe you in to my heart and mind

Tiny new person of many countries  

A new child

There are so many questions

What will the world hold for you Rafa?

When you were just 10 days old your mum and I took you for a walk

Along the canal path in the baby carrier

I took a picture

Of Sandy picking early blackberries

Rafa and Rover picking Blackberries on Union Canal - Edinburgh

It reminded me of when your mum was just one week old

Her Dad and I took her

To collect apples and blackberries

from an abandoned orchard

there is a treasured picture of this time.

Rover and her Dad, apple and blackberry picking, Murrungowar - 1981.

Blackberries are a weed in Australia

A curse on some landscapes

Where they are out of control

Despite campaigns to eradicate them

With poison, burning and slashing.

They belong here in Scotland though,

A wild food great for foraging

Your other grandma arrived on her first visit

To meet you with a blackberry pie

Telling the story that once upon a time

Many people went to collect the fruit

But now a friend was the only one.

These events came to mind

When a man at the Book Festival – (Graeme Gibson)

Spoke of the way people were changing nature

Less birds, animals and plants

He told us that in the dictionary now

Apple and blackberry are no longer about fruit

But computer brands and gizmos

That tie people to their work 24 hours a day

Your Dad has one of these

I have a picture of you with him

Walking through the Edinburgh Fringe

On the way to register your birth.

Rafa and his dad on the Royal Mile, Edinburgh

I am hopeful that the toughness of blackberries

Will ensure their survival

So that you too will take your billy

and collect the ripest, blackest and juiciest

of these sweet wild foods.

Then I can add that picture to this story.

Love Nanna Helen

September 2013
Edinburgh 

Rafa and his Nanna Helen in sunny St Andrew Square, Edinburgh.