Tag: Poem

When I first ventured into vegetable gardening I was guided by books. Each step felt tenuous, like treading in the dark. My guide was a carefully drawn plan, each square foot measured, each seed accounted for.  With time I relaxed.  I learned that seeds grow and that I only need to provide water and shelter.

A few years have passed and now what joy! Borage, calendula, dill, sorrel and chives return on their own to resculpt the landscape. This spring, rabbits devoured the first shoots of sunflowers and greens…so I raised the height of the wire fence, used a large removeable barrel to block the entrance, and planted more seeds.  I still make annual plans—plant families rotate from year to year and companions are placed side by side.  Beyond my winter dreaming the real garden emerges in a flow of call and response.

Even with a plan

the path ahead is hidden

mystery unfolds

Behind the barrel gate

cilantro blooms celebrate

squash vine creeps closer

 ~

In response to Suzanne’s Ontheroad prompt “Step by Step” based on this quote from Monkey King 2: 

“You don’t find the path, you make it step by step” 

and this haiku of Basho:

 In the wintry gust

I wander, like Chikusai

the comic poet.
 – from “Matsuo Bashō: The Poetic Spirit, Sabi, and Lightness,” by Makoto Uedo

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