<!– @page { size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } –>

There’s a poem by Robert Hass that ends that way. It starts with

“All the new thinking is about loss.
In this it resembles all the old thinking.”

and continues on through image and language, engaging and turning you, until somehow, a mere page later, all you want to speak and hear is that old refrain: “Blackberry, blackberry, blackberry.”

2 cups of yogurt

1 cup of blackberries

1 black pepper shaker

It’s good to whip the yogurt, and better to make it yourself, from the delicious milk from our local Dungeness Creamery. If you want to go for the more ice-cream vibe, whip it with sugar (I would say honey, but I haven’t tried that yet…) and place it in the freezer, taking it out to whip every couple of hours, until the consistency meets your desires.

Toss the blackberries with one 120 degree turn of the pepper grinder. Prudence: “In wildness lies the salvation of the earth”. You can now choose how to sculpt your combination — a bowl of blackberries with chilled yogurt poured on top (hiding them or leaving the boulders visible)? a scoop of frozen yogurt surrounded by plump berries? a swirl together of color? perhaps a frosting for that last birthday cake of the season…