WHAT THE POMEGRANATE KNOWS
Each of us
is a vessel
containing
glittering jewels
hidden beneath
a seemingly tough skin.
Our inner selves
are chambered –
labyrinthine and complex.
We are both
sweet and tart
and we are
definitely
worth the effort.
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2022
Pomegranates are one of my very favorite fruits. Mom was an adventurous eater, and she did everything she could to pass this along to my brother and me. Whenever an unusual fruit or vegetable showed up in our small-town Safeway grocery store, she would buy it for us to try. Good memories.
Now it’s time to savor this week’s poetry offerings! Click here to add your link, and enjoy all the goodies! (EDITED TO ADD: Please forgive the messy, ad-filled link up. I could not for the LIFE of me get Mr. Linky to cooperate. I should have just gone old school.)
EDITED TO ADD: I can’t stand this linkup. Here are the links without you having to wait five seconds to see the blog post. Ugh.
A(nother) Year of Reading 
Love pomegranates, Mary Lee and use them extensively in summer salads. I also love the analogy you draw between people and pomegranates in your poem. I find it most apt as a comparison. Thank you for extending my vision. I shall forever look upon pomegranates with renewed respect.
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What a delightful metaphor! We are sweet…and worth it. So perfect. What a wise mother you had to leave the legacy of food adventure… Once I made guacamole with pomegranate seeds in it, and it was delicous and beautiful. Thank you for hosting today…and in all of the Poetry Friday ways. xo
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Pomegranates yum! I have a chicken recipe with pomegranates that’s always welcome. I like your labyrinthine inner chambers-and I love your bittersweet ending of our being both “sweet and tart, ” and “worth the effort.” Thanks for your delectable poem, and for hosting the roundup!
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What a delicious metaphor, Mary Lee. Definitely worth the effort 🙂 Thanks for the smile and for hosting this week.
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Finding a way to honor your mother and us humans through the glorious pomegranate is special, Mary Lee. I won’t ever eat another without thinking of your thoughtfulness. Happy Friday and thanks for hosting!
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Your poem is a perfect reminder to never take ourselves or others ‘for pomegranate’. 😉
Your mom was a “glittering jewel” of a gem.
Thanks for hosting and for all you do for the poetry community, Mary Lee.
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I love pomegranates and love this poem too!
“glittering jewels
hidden beneath
a seemingly tough skin”
is such a wonderful description of the complexity of people.
Thanks for hosting today!
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A lovely comment on your mother, Mary Lee. I like the comparison between our complex inner selves and the intricacies of the pomegranate. (To be honest, sometimes when I am in a hurry to get dinner on the table and I have juice all over me, I have wondered whether it is worth it! Thanks for the reassurance :-))
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Here’s one of the best life/pomegranate hacks I ever learned: run a sink of warm water and take the pomegranate apart UNDER WATER! No splicks of juice on your clothes!! (I wish Mom had lived long enough for me to share that trick with her!)
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Great trick! And I love that your mom passed on her “adventurous eater” to you and your brother. (My mom is the opposite of an adventurous eater, which has its own joys and tribulations. 🙂 Love the poem. xo
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Thanks for hosting this week, Mary Lee! Your poem brings the pomegranate and its “glittering jewels” inside to life, reminding us that there are two sides to everything – “sweet and tart.”
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I’ve only sampled pomegranate recently. A jewel is perfect. So very pretty – especially if filled with juicy morsels! Thanks for hosting us – and the heads-up on Twitter. I scraped in with minutes to spare. 🙂
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Thanks for hosting, Mary, and your poem is about one of my favorite fruits. I love the tartness of them. You’re lucky your Mom introduced you to it. Now I wonder if mine ever ate one.
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Mary Lee, pomegranates were a special holiday food in our house. I remember my Nonnie cutting it open and the red juice would bleed all over my hands. We had fun trying to wash the dye away. Your poem is filled with amazing images that go deep beyond the fruit. The word jewel stands out. Thank you for the sweet and tart memory. I am running late today so my offering will come later in the afternoon. Thank you for hosting.
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You make me want to go and find a pomegranate and give it another try. (Maybe it’s really a poemegranate at heart!)
Have you ever seen pomegranate jelly? Thinking that would be a nice thing to try. I like my poems sweet and tart, too!
Happy Friday.
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HAH! Poemegranate! LOVE it!!
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Mary Lee, Thanks for hosting! I, too, love Pomegranates! Like some other commenters, I also like your use of both sweet and tart to describe humans. And, worth the effort for sure! Your post brought a smile to my face on this very wintery morning in Wisconsin! Thank you! (Oh, and last year, I made Pomegranate liquor! It was delish!)
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Sorry, I forgot to add my link for the roundup – https://theapplesinmyorchard.com/2022/01/14/poetry-friday-tide-rhythms/ Thank, again!
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Mary Lee, I too love pomegranates, but I never once considered what they know about humanity. What an apt metaphor. I keep thinking about this and talking to my husband about it! I love the idea of “glittering jewels” and that we are worth the effort. So motivating! Thanks for hosting today.
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Thank you for hosting us today, Mary Lee! Your poem is perfect. I love the “glittering jewels” and the reminder that we are all “definitely worth the effort.”
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Love this, and the small-town Safeway is another poem waiting to be written–“adventurous eater” indeed. Thanks for hosting!
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I love this! A great reminder that people are worth the effort. Thanks for hosting, too! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
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I love your pomegranate poem and the opening stanza in particular. Beautiful! Sorry for the linkup hassles!
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Mary Lee, I love this. 🙂 My youngest daughter is on a very restrictive elimination diet right now, for health reasons, and pomegranates have become one of her favorite fruits. I was recently FaceTiming with another daughter while I was prepping a pomegranate and her husband was popping in and out of the conversation. At one point he said, “How many pomegranates are you cutting up?” I laughed and said, “This is just one.” Worth the effort indeed. Love your comparison to our chambered, inner selves.
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