Favorite Poems "Garden Related"

When I get Up From My Chair by Pam Ayres

Quiet please! Kindly don't impede my concentration,
I am sitting in the garden thinking thoughts of propagation.
Of sowing and nurturing, the fruits my work will bear,
And the place won't know what hit it.....
Once I get up from my chair.
I'm at the planning stage now, if you should need to ask
And if I'm looking weary, it's the rigours of the task.
Creation of a garden is a strain, as you can guess,
So if my eyes should close, it isn't sleep of course.....
It's stress.

On the leeks that I will dibble and the beans that I will stick,
The bugs that I will slaughter and the seedlings I will prick,
I'll disinfect the greenhouse, I will organise the shed,
And beside my faded roses I will pull off every head.
The mower I will cherish and the tools that I will oil,
The dark nutritious compost I will stroke into the soil,
My sacrifice, devotion and heroic aftercare
Will leave you green with envy......
Once I get up from my chair.

Oh, the weeds that I shall mutilate, the clumps that I will split,
I'm foaming at the mouth at the very thought of it,
I am heaving at the traces, I am tearing out my hair,
And you'll see a ruddy hero......
Once I get up from my chair.

I will massacre the bindweed and the moss upon the lawn,
That hairy bittercress will curse the day that it was born,
I will rise against the foe and in the fight new will be matched
And the woolly caterpillars they will curse the day they hatched.
Oh, the branches I will layer and the cuttings I will take,
Let other fellows dig a pond - I shall dig a lake.
My garden, what a showpiece! There'll be pilgrims come to stare,
And I'll bow, and take the credit......
Once I get up from my chair.

This is me in winter and on lazy or rainy days, except for slaughtering bugs of course.

 

There's a clue in the poem itself! Can you spot it?

I do write for the u3a writing group what I belong to and occasionally try a poem.

 

"The Trees" by Philip Larkin


The Trees by Philip Larkin

 

Great thread, especially on a very dull wet day.