"Preparing the Ground" by Pamela Harrison
Preparing the Ground
Whorled petals of autumn asters, starry
angelica, lilies, and rose--
You see in your mind’s eye a garden
risen on the distant slope
where knots of weeds and rocks now grow:
It will take work beyond the clearing,
removing heavy sod and stones.
It will take buckets of well-rotted manure,
composted for years then hauled up hill
with a wooden yoke balanced on squared shoulders.
You’ll need to double-dig the hardpan
nature put there first. You’ll have to
get down on your knees and knead it
into loam with your bare hands,
removing witch grass, cut worms and grubs.
Then edge it in stone.
Before May and June,
before mounds of bloom, you must
do all the lost, invisible work
no one counts when they see flowers.
Pamela Harrison reads "Preparing the Ground"