Sparks in the Soil

Paging Mr. Maplethorpe!

Behold, the sensual beauty of a young zucchini seedling...and a quote from Robert Maplethorpe, the famous photographer of "naughty" orchids: "When I work, and in my art, I hold hands with God."

 

Have you signed up for my feed yet?  It's easy - just click here!

Stunning Garden Poem: 'This Compost'

It's still National Poetry Month, and after Kathy over at Skippy's Vegetable Garden published a stanza from this stunning Walt Whitman poem, "This Compost," and I was inspired to read--and now post--the whole thing.  Read it aloud, you won't be sorry.  "What chemistry!"

"This Compost"

By Walt Whitman

1

Something startles me where I thought I was safest,
I withdraw from the still woods I loved,
I will not go now on the pastures to walk,
I will not strip the clothes from my body to meet my lover the sea,
I will not touch my flesh to the earth as to other flesh to renew me.

O how can it be that the ground itself does not sicken?
How can you be alive you growths of spring?
How can you furnish health you blood of herbs, roots, orchards, grain?
Are they not continually putting distemper'd corpses within you?
Is not every continent work'd over and over with sour dead?

Where have you disposed of their carcasses?
Those drunkards and gluttons of so many generations?
Where have you drawn off all the foul liquid and meat?
I do not see any of it upon you to-day, or perhaps I am deceiv'd,
I will run a furrow with my plough, I will press my spade through
the sod and turn it up underneath,
I am sure I shall expose some of the foul meat.

2

Behold this compost! behold it well!
Perhaps every mite has once form'd part of a sick person--yet behold!
The grass of spring covers the prairies,
The bean bursts noiselessly through the mould in the garden,
The delicate spear of the onion pierces upward,
The apple-buds cluster together on the apple-branches,
The resurrection of the wheat appears with pale visage out of its graves,
The tinge awakes over the willow-tree and the mulberry-tree,
The he-birds carol mornings and evenings while the she-birds sit on
their nests,
The young of poultry break through the hatch'd eggs,
The new-born of animals appear, the calf is dropt from the cow, the
colt from the mare,
Out of its little hill faithfully rise the potato's dark green leaves,
Out of its hill rises the yellow maize-stalk, the lilacs bloom in
the dooryards,
The summer growth is innocent and disdainful above all those strata
of sour dead.

What chemistry!
That the winds are really not infectious,
That this is no cheat, this transparent green-wash of the sea which
is so amorous after me,
That it is safe to allow it to lick my naked body all over with its tongues,
That it will not endanger me with the fevers that have deposited
themselves in it,
That all is clean forever and forever,
That the cool drink from the well tastes so good,
That blackberries are so flavorous and juicy,
That the fruits of the apple-orchard and the orange-orchard, that
melons, grapes, peaches, plums, will none of them poison me,
That when I recline on the grass I do not catch any disease,
Though probably every spear of grass rises out of what was once
catching disease.

Now I am terrified at the Earth, it is that calm and patient,
It grows such sweet things out of such corruptions,
It turns harmless and stainless on its axis, with such endless
successions of diseas'd corpses,
It distills such exquisite winds out of such infused fetor,
It renews with such unwitting looks its prodigal, annual, sumptuous crops,
It gives such divine materials to men, and accepts such leavings
from them at last.

National Poetry Month: Garden Poems

April is National Poetry Month, and so naturally my thoughts turn to ways in which poets see gardens.  Has there ever been a more poem-ready image than a garden?  Many garden poems draw on the ready  metaphor of death, from the natural cycles of bloom and fade to the disillusionment of barrenness where flowers should be.  Like this poem, that to me reads like an indictment of Christianity as a squelcher of gardens (not exactly in line with the inspiration behind this blog!):

"The Garden of Love"

By William Blake

I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen;
A Chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,
And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door;
So I turned to the Garden of Love
That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tombstones where flowers should be;
And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys and desires.

I like this next poem because it a) refers to gardens as "lovesome," and b) expresses incredulity at the idea that God could ever abandon a garden. 

"My Garden"

By Thomas Edward Brown

A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot!

Rose plot,

       Fringed pool,

Ferned grot --

       The veriest school

Of peace; and yet the fool

Contends that God is not --

Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?

       Nay, but I have a sign:

'Tis very sure God walks in mine.

I found another beautifully poetic rendering of the meaning many of us find in garden in these last lines from "The Fruit Garden Path" by Amy Lowell: 

The moments of my life, its hopes and fears

Have all found utterance here, where now I stand;

 My eyes ache with the weight of unshed tears,

You are my home, do you not understand?

Do you have a favorite garden poem?

Have you signed up for my feed yet?  It's easy - just click here!

A Bouquet of Spring Garden Quotes

I have loved Victoria Magazine for many years.  Even though it's gotten very "Southern Lady-ish" lately (it changed ownership a few years back), I am always drawn in, relaxed, and inspired by the glowing photography and crisp articles about tea, gardens, women entrepreneurs, travel, and heirlooms.

Another thing I love is the sprinkling of quotes that they tuck into the nooks and crannies of the magazine.  In their new issue (March/April 2010), there are several that have me thinking this whole "winter" thing might actually come to an end:

"But each spring...a gardening instinct, sure as the sap rising in the trees, stirs within us. We look about and decide to tame another little bit of ground." --Lewis Gantt

"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden." --Thomas Jefferson

"A flower's appeal is in its contradictions--so delicate in form yet strong in fragrance, so small in size yet big in beauty, so short in life yet long on effect." --Adabella Radici

"'Tis my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes!" --William Wordsworth

And this quote, which I'll hold onto in case winter lingers a bit longer....

"There ought to be Gardens for all Months in the year, in which, severally, things of Beauty may be then in season." --Sir Francis Bacon

Have you signed up for my feed yet?  It's easy - just click here!

More Sparkling Quotes

Inspired by yesterday's Samuel Johnson quote, I peeked around for more quotes about sparks.  What an image are those bursts of light that come from a fire but are not fire itself, come from the sun but are only reflections on water or trees.  Wake up your afternoon with these 4 inspiring quotes about sparks:

"When a heart is on fire, sparks fly out of the mouth." --Proverb

"How hard it is to hide the sparks of nature!" --William Shakespeare

"Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant, they are a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks."  --Johann Gottfried Von Herder

"Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out." --Job 41:19

And what would be a quotes list without at least one moralistic quote?  Here's one for the sparkling fussbudget in each of us:

"He that blows the coals in quarrels he has nothing to do with has no right to complain if the sparks fly in his face." --Benjamin Franklin

Have you signed up for my feed yet?  It's easy - just click here!

On Sparks Great and Small

"Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks," said the 18th century writer Samuel Johnson.

'Tis true, 'tis true.  And that's what I'm trying to do with this blog, is to dig for the unexpected sparks that kindle bright blazes of gladness in our days, in our lives. 

Just to put a point on how seemingly insignificant a happiness-spark can be, may I present the spark that has made my today a little happier: 

Here's how I figure: these knee-high socks were an impulse purchase this past weekend at Target.  They washed up beautifully, and when I slid them on this morning, they made my feet and lower legs feel toasty and comfortable, relaxed somehow.  It's a chilly day here, but a gorgeous sun shine-y one.  But with my feet so warmly empowered, I decided to open my windows and see what this pretty fall day might bring.  And so here I sit, wiggling my toes as I work, my nose pleasantly chilly, a hot cup of tea the perfect bridge between outside and in.

And so I was sock-sparked.

How's your day?

Have you signed up for my feed yet?  It's easy - just click here!

Earth Day Video: Quotes and Images of Spring

Happy Earth Day, everyone!  To celebrate, I took photos of the buds and early leaves that are emerging around my house, and paired them with uplifting quotes that celebrate the season. 

(Note: there's no music because of pesky copyright issues....I actually have a beautiful recording of birds singing, but my recorder isn't compatible with my Mac.  I will NOT, however, let technical difficulties spoil this beautiful Earth Day.  So, the video is a silent meditation....)

Garden Quote: Joseph Joubert

I came across this quote on the inside cover of my garden journal. Funny, I had never noticed it before. It's by the 18th century French moralist and essayist Joseph Joubert, a simple but lovely thought:

"All gardeners live in beautiful places because they make them so."

Do you have a favorite garden quote?

Garden Quote: Christian Nestell Bovee

I saw this lovely quote in the new issue of Victoria magazine. It's from the mid-19th century lawyer and writer Christian Nestell Bovee:

"To cultivate a garden is to walk with God, to go hand in hand with nature in some of her most beautiful processes, to learn something of her choicest secrets, and to have a more intelligent interest awakened in the beautiful order of her works elsewhere."

A nice thought for a chilly Tuesday, no?