Secret Gardening

[poliphilo]

The grassy bank that slopes up to Meldrum Street has been fenced off from us as part of the alley-gateing scheme (see previous post).  I used to view it as a sort of secondary garden and I'll miss it.

Here's a poem I wrote about it back in the day. 

                                    SECRET GARDENING

 

                                    The bank at the back that slopes up from the ginnel:

                                    I cherish it as a stretch of wild Nature

                                    Where various kinds of grasses tangle

                                    And cats- our cats- go hunting for mice.

           

                                    I lift the little, chewed-up corpses

                                    Off the floor with dustpan and brush

                                    Then sling them back home up the banking-

                                    Earth to earth.

 

                                                            There are few wild flowers-

                                    Loosestrife chiefly and lots of nettles-

                                    Stuff that will settle for builders' rubble.

                                    We had a four foot foxglove once,

                                    Heart-stopping,  purple.  A selfish neighbour

                                    Carried it off to her own back garden.

                                    Thief!

 

                                                I work the other way,

                                    Removing plants to the bank I don't want

                                    Choking my borders.  I hid a little

                                    Ash tree there in a nettlebed.

                                    I pay it visits.  And yes I know-

                                    How very old maidish of me.  So what?

                                    I mean to be shameless as I grow old.

Comments

[amritarosa.livejournal.com]

I love this one! May I re-post?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'd be honoured.

[sovay]

And yes I know -
How very old maidish of me.  So what?
I mean to be shameless as I grow old.

This is like Greek lyric with nettles and foxgloves. I love it.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I love this and identify. We have fenced off some "illegal" land behind us chiefly to protect it from becoming a place where everyone tosses trash. I planted a mulberry tree there that grew unsolicited in a flower pot, no doubt the gift of a visiting bird.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

A mulberry tree that grew from a random pip- that's wonderful!

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I hid a little
Ash tree there in a nettlebed.
I pay it visits.


I love you, Tony.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We see the world from a very similar angle I think....