the garden

January 17th

January 12th

as i've mentioned before
if i could be let loose
free of the normal grown-up, responsible person's
activities revolving around earning a living, etc
i could be very happy spending my life
cataloging skies
(and yes, trees)

every time one of these evening skies appears
the exuberant poet's lines come to mind

...the Holy Ghost over the bent
    world broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
                                                    Gerard Manley Hopkins

December 25th

Happy Hanukkah!

October 7th

another cloud study
"mare's tails" in the deep northern sky

September 29th

early this morning
strangely warm wind
gusting through the trees
clouds racing, darkening
across the sunrise

my nose tells me first
then come the pelting raindrops

September 24th

glancing up from the computer
feathers of cloud pulled me outside
lying on my back, watching
i spy two tiny, moving black dots
the chimney swifts are still here!
oh to live so high above

the female hummingbirds still visit the
sky blue, black-blue,purple and white salvias
each morning
the chickadees and gold finches
hang all over the old sunflowers
all day.

the sunflower plants are unsightly
brown-black withered leaves
but as long as there are
seeds i will leave them be.

i see visitors look askance
too bad
for them.

September 1st

the dawn following the storm revealed
a calm, clear, sky.

no devastating blow
by the hand of man or nature
can hold back the light

it can only break our hearts

but in that moment
we take turns, it seems
holding each other up.
while tears choke one voice
another sings
and so it goes
leaning on each other
placing one foot in front of the other.

from a New York Times editorial, August 30th:

"Disaster has, as it almost always does, called up American generosity and instances of heroism. Young people helped the old onto rafts in flooded New Orleans streets, and exhausted rescue workers refused all offers of rest, while people as far away as Kansas and Arizona went online to offer shelter in their homes to the refugees...All the focus now must be on rescuing the survivors...Those of us in New York watch the dire pictures from Louisiana with keen memories of the time after September 11 when the rest of the nation made it clear that our city was their city, and that everyone was part of the battle to restore it.

Right now it looks as if rescuing New Orleans will be a task much more daunting than any city has faced since the San Francisco fire of 1906. It is a mission for all of us."

 and so many towns and cities in Mississippi, too.

August 23rd

late august brings change
and corn!

this is a field of feed corn
but the sweet stuff everyone
waits for is piled in
slippery mounds at every farm stand
and on picnic tables or kid's wagons
beneath patio umbrellas by the side of the road.

simple signs:

butter n sugar
white corn
zucchini
tomatoes
even pumpkins are showing up.
there's a bag of used grocery sacks
and a cash box.
i delight in this
gesture of implicit trust:
"please take our veg and here's
some change for your $5 or $10 bill..."
talk to the owner and it is actually
true that those who will pull over
and stop to buy his or her corn,
luscious red tomatoes or
small squash (only the inexperienced
city folk take the big green bats)
those people hungry for the best
which is never found in a supermarket
are generally honest.

August 13th

still searching the skies for relief

and putting into the blender:
the juice of one lemon
about 1/2 cup of light sugar syrup (1:4)
10 or so ice cubes
a little water...maybe 1/2 cup
and blending til it becomes a thick slush
then slurping slowly

July 20th

ahhh, clean skies again!
too much humidity is a real drag.
it's hot today
but not humid like it was..
glory be to the heavens for breaks
in the weather!