As a child, I learned to eat honeysuckle sugar. It is a tedious process, […] one that requires demonstration and touch. Despite the meager payoff, a few drops of nectar, these are small, bright memories. When I look through my past for a consistent pleasure, I find those empty, discarded blossoms scattered through my childhood summers.
~ Alysia Sawchyn, from “Riverbanks and Honeysuckle,” Cutbank (no. 86, July 2016)
Notes:
- Inspired by Adam Zagajewski, Slight Exaggeration: An Essay: “the surface on which we step has no more substance than the clouds floating above us on a summer day.“
- Photo of Honeysuckle: Awkward Botany.
- Prose Source: Memory’s Landscape. Alysia Sawchyn was the Winner of the CutBank 2016 Big Sky, Small Prose: Flash Contest with Riverbanks and Honeysuckle.
Live & Learn 
Me too! I love that memory
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I can taste that extracted nectar, the small drop that it was.
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Close your eyes…you can still smell them.
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Ahhhhh yes!
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That was wonderful. Closest I ever got to eating something naturally sweet like that was to pluck purple clover and eat the white ends…
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I’ve done that!
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Have never tasted the nectar, but the smell is intoxicating….
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Add it to your Bucket List. Must do.
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Oooo, I’ve never thought to extract drops of nectar from honeysuckle, let alone drink it. I’m looking forward to next year’s honeysuckle season, as we have some growing in our front garden 🙂 And I won’t care if people think I’m having a second childhood!
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Oooooh Sarah, you don’t know what you are missing. You must do it. I’ll be waiting for your Haiku that follows.
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My favorite thing to do in the morning, I can still remember the sweet taste of the drops. ☺☺
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Incredible how such a small thing brings back such a powerful memory. Yes. Me too.
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It was delightful and delicious. Hugs.
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When I was a kid, I ate pure (refined white) sugar right out of the bowl! I am certain that honeysuckle sugar would have been healthier.
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Ha! Not sure how you managed to keep the figure. You are doing a lot right.
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A lovely “pause and just remember, smile” kind of post David
thanks, cheers!
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Exactly Debi. I had the same reaction. Thanks.
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what a sweet, sweet memory –
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Isn’t it though.
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Yes. Sometimes meager payoffs are the sweetest.
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They are…
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Oh yeah, I love all things honeysuckle! we had a huge one in my backyard. You couldn’t get enough of it but you couldn’t make a dent in it either.
“So come with me
I’ll show you where the
Dogwood’s bloom it’s true
Lost n’ found n’ lost again
To the Honeysuckle Blue”
Kevn Kinney, Drivin and Cryin
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Love that…
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I did and still do. It’s the sweetest little treat. Just me and memories and the little tastes that still tickle my tongue.
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So well described!
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