Interview with a Gardener

[Jimmy O'Connell]

Interview with a Gardener*

“Do you see that,” he said, his face turned
scoured and angry as we stood by a rusted
gate propped up by a blue plastic barrel,
lichened and cow-shit-splattered. “You’d
have to pity a man who would let it all
go to hell and he within having his breakfast.”

The garden of dock weeds, wind-blown
buttercups and swaying foxgloves beside
a bungalow not painted in decades, and a parked
Land Rover, headlight smashed and rusting wheels.

But was it pity he felt, or the contempt of a man
assured of his gifted green fingers and the
rootedness of a gardener to the world of clay
and the abundancy of the seasons held within?

And what of the man sitting at his kitchen table,
in his neglected house, by an imagined tick-
echoing clock? Maybe there is no assurance
in a universe where the seasons have abandoned
a garden left unploughed and untilled.

[mat james]

And what of the man sitting by his kitchen table,
within his neglected house and an imagined
tick-echoing clock? Maybe there is no assurance
in a universe where the seasons have abandoned
a garden of clay left unploughed and untilled.

Wow! powerful stuff, Jimmy.
Omar Khayyam would be nodding and raising his glass, I am sure.
I feel a bit that way about myself, sometimes. Maybe we all do?
...but the wine usually lifts me clear...

MatbbgJ

[anneporter]

I love this poem and will reread and contemplate it

[Jimmy O'Connell]

Thanks Mat and Anne,
best compliment a wannabe pote can get!!

Jimmy

[Jimmy O'Connell]

Did a little bit of editing on this one....

[mat james]

Well, since you are "doing the work" of building a poem, (or tilling the soil of this poesy,) I will take the plunge and add my two-bob's worth.

But was it pity he felt, or the contempt of a man

The first verse implies no pity by this observer, Jimmy. Just "contempt".
I would work on this line above for it does not fit the mood/direction of the poem, for me at least.

You might somehow imply that you wished it was "pity" that he felt; or state that there was no pity, if it is to link with the first verse' attitude.

But who am I to say? Keep working on it Jimmy, it is a powerful image/scene/mood/reflection....and I love it!

MatbbgJ

[Jimmy O'Connell]

Thanks Mat,
You picked up something I missed in the re-write...
so.... back to the re-write-process