Friday, January 10, 2014

Poetry Friday: Paths

I love the particularity of this poem by John Montague, in which he remembers the two gardens of his childhood, gardens of which he was the "small guardian."  One was a flower garden, and the other a vegetable garden: "the front for beauty, the back for use."  This poem captures so many small details that I feel as though I can wander through these gardens with him in his memory.

Paths
John Montague

We had two gardens.

A real flower garden
overhanging the road
(our miniature Babylon).
Paths which I helped
to lay with Aunt Winifred,
riprapped with pebbles;
shards of painted delph;
an old potato boiler;
a blackened metal pot,
now bright with petals. 
 
You can read the rest here. And you can see today's roundup here.

5 comments:

jama said...

What lovely images in that poem -- nice to picture flowers and vegetables, colorful, green and growing, on this cold winter's day. I like the narrator's reflective tone, the gentle sense of yearning.

Tabatha said...

I hadn't heard the word "riprapped" before -- I like it. What a tender, affectionate poem!

Linda B said...

It's lovely, Ruth. I love those 'carroty sons herding their milch cows'. Many beautiful memories here. We can follow as he walks the paths, can't we? Thank you!

Mary Lee said...

Thanks for a walk in the gardens on this grey and damp day!

GatheringBooks said...

There is so much love in this poem, busy hands, and the beauty of the flowers and garden paths. :)