strange and fruity
why the tagline ‘strange fruit’ in this weblog’s banner?
‘strange fruit’ is the title of a protest song first recorded in 1939 by billie holiday, setting a poem by lewis allen (aka abel meeropol):
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
the song’s been recorded by other artists, but not, to my mind, so movingly as by billie holiday.
the poem refers to the lynching of blacks in the USA.
the wonderful image of the crowd of buddhas which i’ve used in the banner of my weblog seems to me to represent the polar opposite of the mind-set which leads to lynching.
but more poignantly … karmic fruits are the strangest of all.
