This week I've been thinking about waiting. Waiting for news. Waiting for the right time. Waiting for an important event.
Life is full of waiting, isn't it?
I remember reading something about how women are the ones who wait, and I wanted to rail against it. I don't want to wait, I want to DO!
But sometimes waiting IS doing. Like in the garden. And so, for this week's ArtSpeak: WOMEN I wrote this wee poem about gardens and life and waiting.
A couple of process notes:
I am kind of in love with Gabriele Münter right now.
I had at least half a dozen false starts to this poem. I abandoned most of them because they were too long for this particular series....all my ArtSpeak! poems must fit and be legible on the graphic cards I create over at Canva.
(Apparently I have a lot to say about gardening...I'm tucking this revelation away to revisit another day...maybe there's a larger project I can create??)
When I realized I was going long, I decided to restrain myself with a short poetry form.
First I tried a rispetto, but it just didn't stick.
I like the bit of humor that emerged!
Where I landed for today's offering is quite far away from where I started, with two lines from my journal that I thought would be the heart of the poem:
What you call madness! chaos! obsession!
I call a devotion to beauty.
So I will save those lines for another (longer) poem. Thanks so much for reading.
Everything I Need to Know about Waiting I Learned in the Garden
Wait for
better weather.
Wait for seeds to sprout,
vines to twine
buds to blossom.
Wait, it died?!
Sigh.
Try again next year.
I was all ready for the fruits of patience, and then ... death! The ending made me laugh out loud. Well done.
ReplyDeleteHa! story of my life...trying to be a better plant mama. Wonderful notes on process, thank you!
ReplyDeleteWhat is not to love about Gabriele Münter? The garden has so much to teach us about waiting (and life in general), including the fact that not everything works out the way we planned. Thank you for the reminder, Irene!
ReplyDeleteIrene, my recent foray into backyard herbs went much the same way. Ha.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to have a sense of humor these days, Irene! Love this, the gardener's good, and not so good, life! I like that line you're saving, too!
ReplyDelete"Wait - it died?" is about where I am in some of my garden pursuits this year. Le sigh. But if you can keep trying to make a poem out of it, I can keep trying to figure out where the line between too much shade and just enough lies. Happy waiting! ♥
ReplyDeleteI love that the title of your poem is lamost longer than the poem itslef, Irene. The ending,something of an anticlimax is is suitably abrupt. It pulls the reader to attention. A poem should start and finish strongly, they tell us. in this poem, you stay true to that maxim.
ReplyDeleteOh, my gosh, when it comes to plants, I can SO relate to, "Wait, it died?!" (Thank goodness my husband is in charge of the garden here.) Thanks for the laughter.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated reading about your process this week too. You're so prolific and make everything look effortless. (I know it's never effortless for any writer, but you have a knack for making it *seem* effortless.) :)
And thanks for Gabriele Munter beauty!
Irene, love reading about your process and garden, and savoring your poem and Gabrielle's gorgeous artwork!
ReplyDeleteOh gosh, I can't get past your first line, Irene! If that isn't life-wisdom... Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI love the little turn of the word wait to wait, what? Dead! Thanks for sharing your process. It’s good to know even the best poets have days when the poeming is hard won. You teach me perseverance in writing and gardening.
ReplyDeleteRight now, I am waiting to see if my tomatoes will bloom again and whether or not the chipmunk/squirrel deterrents I've devised will work so that we, TOO, get to eat some garden-fresh tomatoes this year!
ReplyDeleteYes to waiting. So much waiting. My garden goes from the tiniest of zucchinis to giants. And I'm like, HOW do you do this in ONE day? I've been WAITING to make zucchini bread and now I'm googling all the things to do with zucchini. :) LOL
ReplyDeleteI’m waiting for my moon flower sprouts to grow bigger on the vine, and will hopefully have time for their lovely star-like flowers to open… Gorgeous image to accompany your humor-filled waiting poem—I like the longer title too. Sometimes waiting is good for it may slow down the rapid pace of our lives, thanks Irene! 🐝🦋🌻
ReplyDeleteGabrielle learning from Kandinsky is a match-up of vibrancy that's marvelous to know - appreciations, Irene, for your waiting, your finding & your sharing. your fan, JAN xo
ReplyDeleteMy favorite posts always include the behind-the-scenes stuff (and some of the lines left on the cutting room floor). This is great, Irene!
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