This month for Poetry 365 we’re featuring Nicholas Christopher’s engaging new book On Jupiter Place. Favorably compared to the work of Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, and James Merrill, this eighth collection of poetry from the Tiger Rag author is perhaps his most personal and autobiographical work to date. Filled with intimate portraits of his grandmother, father, and even Lois Lane, On Jupiter Place shows why W.S. Merwin described Christopher’s poems as “vibrant with light and the surprise of recognition.” So don’t miss this engaging new book, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.
Golden Apples
They crop up in high dramas —
Hercules’ eleventh labor
the Judgment of Paris —
but what the Greeks called apples
were in fact oranges
said to shine like lanterns
by the sailors who brought
them from India
to trade for gold
until the fruit lost its currency
and over time became
a party favor
a historical relic
a rare condiment
and finally (by default)
a common food
quartered and sprinkled with salt
and best eaten
before dawn
when it glows
