Hope

Black earth under my fingernails
Black earth holding my dreams

A trinity of plastic pots, water's blessing
A longing for love, change, growth ...

Seeds

Davidia involucrata var. vilmorinian

I touch unfamiliar red fruit
husks like fabric on a line, wet and loose -

when I lift one by its stalk,
it drops, leaving behind a red string -

I read each contains a kernel,
a nut with several seeds requiring

slow sleep in leaf mould before
beginning to grow, requiring years

of nuturing before it might become
a tree laden with handkerchieves,
alive with doves.

Metamorphosis - not

The year began so optimistically with new projects and a desire to make this house 'work', partly by creating a garden.  But then heavy snow came - and it famously never snows here - making it impossible to do any work outside.  The snow has gone but I've now got a heavy, snotty, disorienting cold which means I can't think ...  And it became crystal clear that this domestic arrangement can't work - and so I've given 2 months notice to the landlord - so rather than the garden metamorphosing, it looks like my whole life will.

Hiding

Almost hidden by ivy,
a stone angel I'd forgotten -
gardening like writing
isn't just making things grow -
it's clearing, uncovering
always looking for what
we don't know we know.

Possibility

Tidier now, compost bought
Space, not the blank page
But slabs and wall. What
Will I write? What shall I say?

Neglect

A year of being away
and rain - a mess of dying back
and overgrown - a shame.

Poetography 2010

This is my intention for Poetography 2010 - to use this space to reflect on changes over the year. Even though I have been wanting to leave my rented house for years now, I have decided that I will work again on the small backyard which I neglected all through 2009, because I was travelling and also because the weather was almost constantly wet and dismal. Every Saturday, I will take photographs of work-in-progress amongst the plant pots and reflect in writing on changes there and also in my life.

I've taken the Handkerchief Tree as the title of this blog - there is one of these beautiful unusual trees growing at Trebah Gardens - known as 'the garden of dreams'. It is full of unusual plants brought to this sheltered valley by Victorian collectors. It's a three hour walk from here around the coast and part of my project will be to go regularly, on foot as often as possible, and look at this tree. I'm also going to try to grow a handkerchief tree - although as it's a native from China, I don't know if it will germinate.

Finally, Saturday will be 'beauty day' - I'll attempt an artist's date - which may be going to Trebah or perhaps the local gallery to look at a picture or something else entirely. My intention is to post every Saturday ....