Monday, June 24, 2013

The Me Who So Loves to Garden Because It Prevents the Heaving of the Ground and the Untimely Death of Porch Formula





Terry Riley (here's the MP3 library at Ubuweb) was born 78 years ago today. Here's an all Riley show from Bryce in 2012. The recently released Don Cherry - Terry Riley 1975 live concert from Koln is another best release of 2013, it's today's cascade. It's only on vinyl that I can find, fucking iTunes is useless as usual, HEY! someone with a turn-table, if I buy this and send it to you will you please burn me a CD? Archive that direct appeal for a partner in copyright theft, Copper!













   
THE DEFINITION OF GARDENING

James Tate

Jim just loves to garden, yes he does.
He likes nothing better than to put on
his little overalls and his straw hat.
He says, "Let's go get those tools, Jim."
But then doubt begins to set in.
He says, "What is a garden, anyway?"
And thoughts about a "modernistic" garden
begin to trouble him, eat away at his resolve.
He stands in the driveway a long time.
"Horticulture is a groping in the dark
into the obscure and unfamiliar,
kneeling before a disinterested secret,
slapping it, punching it like a Chinese puzzle,
birdbrained, babbling gibberish, dig and
destroy, pull out and apply salt,
hoe and spray, before it spreads, burn roots,
where not desired, with gloved hands, poisonous,
the self-sacrifice of it, the self-love,
into the interior, thunderclap, excruciating,
through the nose, the earsplitting necrology
of it, the withering, shriveling,
the handy hose holder and Persian insect powder
and smut fungi, the enemies of the iris,
wireworms are worse than their parents,
there is no way out, flowers as big as heads,
pock-marked, disfigured, blinking insolently
at me, the me who so loves to garden
because it prevents the heaving of the ground
and the untimely death of porch furniture,
and dark, murky days in a large city
and the dream home under a permanent storm
is also a factor to keep in mind."


11 comments:

  1. Thank you Obama and thank you James Tate!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Isn't this 'shitty blog' merely your own mixtape audition to become 'digital overlord' of at least some of us? I thought so. Your complicity. +/-.06%

    That should send you into a spiral of bleggalgazing self-reflection that will keep you Occupied until the next beggalgazing meme arises.

    Best,
    Jim H.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 1)while we are recalling the work of Robbie Burns, "also known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, Robden of Solway Firth, the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as The Bard" - my late father (born and raised in Nova Scotia) would from time to time recite the last verse of this:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/works/to_a_louse/

    2)i tell my wife (and the homeowners association) that our back yard is a nature preserve - that is my sincere intention, and i think any fair-minded person could agree that it is at least a plausible hypothesis

    ReplyDelete
  4. Partisan 'til the End, Baby!June 24, 2013 at 3:03 PM

    He lost the election in significant part due to a campaign labeling him a traitor for speaking out against the atrocities in Vietnam.

    Doubt that's why he "lost" the election. But don't let anyone disrupt your fantasies.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Maybe, maybe not Oxtrot, though again, though as always your remarkable ability to miss the point of what I am saying never fails to astound.

    ReplyDelete
  6. now this





    The Teaching

    It is as old as the stones.
    It came with Humans to the Earth
    and it offers them a way out
    of the web of sorrows
    but at a price:
    we must observe ourselves,
    our behavior, our
    inner and outer responses,
    objectively. This means
    without taking a personal interest
    or doing anything about
    the horror
    which self observation uncovers:
    like a bad boy with a stick
    overturning a stone
    and finding a mass of crawling things
    beneath, but
    he refrains
    from stomping on them.


    ---Red Hawk, 1996
    in The Way of Power

    ReplyDelete
  7. today is my birthday - i am six years older than Lincoln, the protagonist of James Tate's poem "The Diagnosis"

    ReplyDelete
  8. F: Did you ever receive the Milosz?

    J: Have I ever denied my complicity?

    C: Happies! and thanks for the poem.

    ReplyDelete
  9. BDR,
    Besides being ranked last, as in fiftieth, in child welfare, I think all the talk about NM being a third world country may be true, at least vis a vis their postal system. I have received a pittance of forwarded mail and nothing that weighs more than an ounce or that could be resold on ebay. I am so sorry. I coveted that volume more than I can say. I plan to go to the main post office this week and see if I can shake anything out of them (cue the Get Smart laugh track), but I am not hopeful on that score.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sean, you're banned. People have asked me why I put up with your shit and the answer is I don't know, maybe because you used to comment smartly and respectfully here to everyone's benefit before you decided you'd rather be an asshole. Fuck that. Go troll someone else.

    ReplyDelete
  11. You: "J: Have I ever denied my complicity?"

    Me: You mean by statements (in the form of questions) like that?

    ReplyDelete