Growing Old Ain't For Sissies

VINTAGE

Vintage stuff, our love,

Fine bouquet, and lazy legs.

Glasses raised, we smile.

JS 2/04

22

The haiku is an unrhymed verse form of Japanese origin having three lines containing 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively. A poem in this form often has a seasonal reference. Haiku do not normally have a title but mine do. I have called this one VINTAGE, the seasonal reference being Fall.

I took the photo of grapes in a vineyard in Northern California where we often stopped and bought a couple of bottles on our way to visit the kids at Mount Hermon.

I can’t resist adding an observation from Robert Farrar Capon, an Episcopal Priest and gourmet cook. In his book, “The Wedding Supper of the Lamb” he has a chapter titled “Water in Excelsis” where he speaks of God taking continuing joy in His creation every day. “Each thing, at every moment becomes the delight of His hand, the apple of his eye.”

Farrar goes on, “Autumn by autumn, He makes wine upon a thousand hills, but He does it without tipping His hand. Glucose, fructose, and saccharomyces ellipsoideus apparently manage very nicely on their own… the bloom of the yeast lies upon the grapeskins year after year because He likes it. C₆H₁₂O₆=2C₂H₅OH+2CO₂ (fermentation) is a dependable process because, every September He says, That was nice, do it again.”

I suspect there just may be vineyards on the New Earth. Otherwise, how do we explain Matthew 26.29?