I went back not in time, but in topographical memory,
to a place where leaves swirl and tumble into crosshatched
networks of red and gold and green, lying still as delayed
springtime in roadside piles, now in varying shades
of umber, sienna, ochre and dun, fashioning soil as they
ponder the cycles of ages, their role in breaking down
into mulch to nurture future generations of shrubs
and trees, flowers and weeds, as moisture trickles off roofs
of city dwellings in runnels and rivulets, nourishing taproots
in tiny strips of soil, while spidery feeder roots await
adequate sunlight for them to burst into carpets
of mosses and meadows, as inside houses the gardener
awaits, marking time until conditions are deemed right
to participate, once again, in creation;
Back here on the ranch, the sand in high desert soil
has filtered snow and spring rains, draining moisture
far beneath the surface in its own dance of eons,
and those who have survived have adapted, ponderosas
and piñons and sagebrush clinging to hillsides,
buttressed by rocks anchoring them in place,
and the vast open beauty of the West fans out in mesas
and valleys gathered into the bosom of snowcapped
mountains, carved through by streams and rivers
appearing from the air like so many veins and arteries
artfully nourishing lungs and vesicles of human anatomy,
we are all connected, these bodies our expression
in the cosmic dance upon the miracle that is Planet Earth.
Love it! This gardener is indeed waiting.
I know you are!! You have a green thumb! 💕🌹🌳
Though Tubularsock lives in a city Tubularsock’s yard is somewhat “wild” in plant life.
Tubularsock works at limited control of the natural plant life with this concept, “If it’s green make it flourish by not messing with it”.
Tubularsock believes green plants already know what they are doing. They live that way!
They sure do! And wow! You once lived near where I am now, correct? I guess you went to the complete opposite end of the spectrum! 😝 I am glad you have a wild yard! Our yard is so wild, all 14 acres of it, that I work at maintaining a small chunk of cultivated garden. The guy we bought the house from built raised beds with some shrubs and flowers. It gives me pleasure continuing on with his creation and adding a bit of my own. 💓
Every morning when I welcome the new day, I remind myself that I am involved, a part of the circle of life, a part of nature. If only more people knew how to pray like this…! 🙏 Do you know Mary Oliver’s poem Sleeping in the Forest? 🌹🙋♂️
Ashley, Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets. I have several of her books, but do not recall that title. I will have to look it up, thanks for the recommend ! You might likewise enjoy a blogger who goes by the handle mindfulbalance. Here’s a quote of his: If you can’t sleep, get up. Make tea. Pray. If you can’t pray, pray anyway. Light a candle. Kneel. Watch. If you can’t watch, watch anyway.
There are hares looking for food. And there are sleeping robins beyond the dark window. There are burrowing things burrowing.
There is this posture, this story, this practice, that – even if nothing else holds you – holds you.
~ Pádraig Ó Tuama
Blessings! 🙏🌳🪴🌹❤️
Dear Bela, thank you for the link. He’s on the same island as me and I know I’m going to enjoy his blog.
Mary Oliver is also one of my favourite poets; I must have a dozen of her books but the poem Sleeping in the Forest is not included in them. I had to look it up and it was first published in a chapbook (Ohio University) in 1978. You will find it easily enough on an internet search.
I fell in love with MO’s writing when I first read Wild Geese which also dates from the late 1970’s but which I didn’t find until 2005 when we returned to this island from southern England. After a life in business I now realise why this old man fell for her soft and sensitive poems. 🌹🙋♂️
Absolutely. I could almost recite Wild Geese by heart (which leads me down another rabbit hole, how that term must have come about, and how, to my knowing anyway, I would only memorize something that touched my heart). I did look the poem up and I did read it and I did live in the New England forest for 34 years and I did sleep on the ground and I can so easily relate to these words. I thought I would be in that place forever, but highways widened and lakes became polluted and the disrespect of some humans destroyed the peace there (fireworks, too many guns). Mary went to Vassar with a friend of mine, they almost became roommates, but my friend was a little touchy about her gender inclinations. Her loss, I say.
I am glad you are going to check out Karl Duffy’s blog. He doesn’t get much response to it, but he keeps posting the most remarkable quotes. I wonder sometimes at his sources, they are remarkably diverse and so compelling, but trust in the magic that he is connected to.
Blessings on the day, Ashley. Thanks for the conversation on this quiet cold Mountain morning. 🪴❤️
Nature does it best! <3
She does, indeed! 🌳🪴🌹🙏❤️
You’ve painted some beautiful pictures. (K)
Thanks, Kerfe, as always for reading and commenting. 🙏🌹
Embracing the elements of where you are, and adding your own slant and insights is delightful.
The multi textured roof is delightful. 💖
That roof is pretty incredible. I retouched the sign out of it, for it is a bathroom at Mount Tabor!! 😂 I have seen it several times because my daughter went to grad school in Portland for four years. But that day, a few days and a lifetime ago it was, I was so flipping cold no matter how much I had on. (I can’t believe I am nearly half Irish)! And as much as I love your homeland and Ireland and the countryside of the entire British Isles, I just couldn’t do it. I need (more) sun to recharge my solar batteries! And it’s so sad really, because I love the ocean so, and the beauty of places like this where the moisture just seeps into every petal of every rose, every needle in the conifers. Such beauty, really and truly! Thanks, Val. 🙏💕💕