Thursday, May 10, 2012

Up To The Mountain by Patty Griffin

Photo collage on my desk.


Up To The Mountain
By Patty Griffin (#28 on the playlist at the bottom of my blog)

I went up to the mountain
Because you asked me to
Up over the clouds
To where the sky was blue
I could see all around me
Everywhere
I could see all around me
Everywhere

Sometimes I feel like
I've never been nothing but tired
And I'll be walking
Till the day I expire
Sometimes I lay down
No more can I do
But then I go on again
Because you ask me to

Some days I look down
Afraid I will fall
And though the sun shines
I see nothing at all
Then I hear your sweet voice, oh
Oh, come and then go, come and then go
Telling me softly
You love me so

The peaceful valley
Just over the mountain
The peaceful valley
Few come to know
I may never get there
Ever in this lifetime
But sooner or later
It's there I will go
Sooner or later
It's there I will go.

============

Despair is my shadow-twin.

============

"Today I felt pass over me
A breath of wind from the wings of madness."  ~Charles Baudelaire

===========







Sunday, May 6, 2012

Herb Tea & Poetry!!

This morning's herb harvest from my yard.


Patriotism
By Ellie Schoenfeld

My country is this dirt
that gathers under my fingernails
when I am in the garden.
The quiet bacteria and fungi,
all the little insects and bugs
are my compatriots. They are
idealistic, always working together
for the common good.
I kneel on the earth
and pledge my allegiance
to all the dirt of the world,
to all of that soil which grows
flowers and food
for the just and unjust alike.
The soil does not care
what we think about or who we love.
It knows our true substance,
of what we are really made.
I stand my ground on this ground,
this ground which will
ultimately
recruit us all
to its side.

-------------------------------------------------------

I read once that to be a gardener, one must have a cast-iron back with a hinge in it.  Well, I have no such thing, but I do have a small wooden child's chair painted 5 colors that I sit in to cut my herbs, plant stuff or pull weeds.  I wear my hot pink plastic shoes, my word shirt (a long-sleeved, old, men's dress shirt I wrote poems on) and a huge, battered straw hat.  I make quite the dashing figure.  LOL!  Where there's a will, there's a way. 

So, how about that million-watt moon last night?  I saw where it was the brightest full moon this year and won't be that bright (close to earth) again until 2029.  I may not make that one, but I sure enjoyed this one.  It was magically delicious shining through my gauzy curtains and spilling onto the floor.  I slept on the couch by my picture window so I could moonbathe and moongaze.  I was awake because my cats have been going apeshit all week.  I'm guessing it's the moon for them, too.  I have a nice moonglow about me today.  ;-)

We took our 15 year old grandson to see "The Avengers" yesterday.  It was just plain awesome.  We clapped, laughed, screamed and sighed when it was over.  All the things one wants from a movie, right?

Off to wash those herbs and dry them.  (Ben, this batch is for your tea...I'll have it to you in a week or two).

Blessings & Love,

xoxo,
Marion

PS:  I garden organically and have a grasshopper invasion.  Of all things, they're eating up my Peppermint and Spearmint only.  If anyone has any tips on getting rid of them, please clue me in.  (Cussing does not work, I've tried....)

--------------------

"My green thumb came only as a result of the mistakes I made while learning to see things from the plant's point of view."  ~H. Fred Dale

---------------

"Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity." ~Lindley Karstens, noproblemgarden.com

----------------

"Coffee.  Garden.  Coffee.  Does a good morning need anything else?"  ~Betsy CaƱas Garmon

--------------





Tuesday, May 1, 2012

The Ravine by Cyrus Cassells

My peach Canna after a shower last week.


The Ravine
By Cyrus Cassells

In my fifth
holy year on earth,

undeterred,
I climbed out of a corpse-filled,

breakspirit ravine,
clutching the roots of trees

(so beautiful,
the god-tall cypresses,

the grandfather pines
in that part of the Crimea),

and groped my way, gingerly,
toward my twilit village,

the lone, itinerant survivor.
You understand the pull,

the rose light of home
is unkillable.

----------------------------------

Everyone says to me--you have such a green thumb.  Look at all of your plants, vegetables, flowers and herbs.  I nod and smile and do not tell them that I have killed many more plants than I will ever grow.  To create life is to experience death.  To live this life, one must persevere.

Support poets.  Buy poetry!!

Happy May,
~Marion


"When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other." ~Chinese Proverb