ELA8, CSS, Sferrazza

Lee Maracle (b. 1950)  is one of the most prolific aboriginal authors in Canada and a recognized authority on issues pertaining to aboriginal people and aboriginal literature. She is an award-winning poet, novelist, performance storyteller, scriptwriter, actor and keeper/mythmaker among the Stó:lō people.  Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Maracle

She wrote this poem while she and her children were picking berries to get the money for their first holiday together. Her language is intended to bring two kinds of creative "vegetation" together: the written word and the oral word.

Razzleberries (1992, 2000)

A thousand tiny thorns

           tear at my flesh

intense sun-heat blisters

           my black back.

 

Countless red berries

           bob and weave

                      before me.

 

           Stinging nettles

morning mud, mosquitos

                     cow flies...

 

A heavy bucket pulls at my neck

arms upstretched, eyes squinting.

 

Still, I'd rather pick razzleberries

than vegetate before a typewriter.

Answer the questions on the poem in your Learning Guide 4.6 Razzleberries.