A Garden Poem to Share

In honor of Poetry month and the coming of spring, our Secret Gardens chairperson offers the following:

"I may not know much about poetry, but I know when something moves me. I read this poem for the first time when it appeared in The New Yorker in May of 1987, and reading it every spring since still gives me a chill. If you're a gardener, you'll know what I mean. And even if you're not--my God, how can the last line not give you goosebumps?"
 - Bruce

An American Naturalist Writes to a Londoner, 1758
Brendan Galvin

Now I will tell you my manner
of gardening here, which progresses
not by calendar but by natural signals.
On a clear March night, I sight down
the Dipper’s bowl, for a backward
question mark—tail of the rising Lion—
and then may be found slapping mud
from the plot into balls, squeezing
to test for water content, this before
even a single mallard clack from
the creek, and pumpkins seem the wreckage
of last year’s quarter-moons.
Then the whole plot is already staked
in my head, minus slugs, borers,
hornworms, loopers, beetles, and all
that plague I forget each year
until they descend like a host of
savages to be bought off
only by a feast of this or that leaf,
and dug out of vines and stems
where they poke without welcome.
Asparagus I intercrop with parsley,
since I have discovered they agree
with one another. The latter
is said to go to the Devil and back
nine times ere it breaks the soil,
but I have found it mild
and without evil influence. Beans
I keep far from onions they can’t
abide, and basil, which breeds
a merry heart, I grow along borders
with umbelliferous dill, whose leaves
are agreeable with fish, though of
a strength not to everyone’s taste.
These strong-scented herbs, with chives
and mint, may keep a barrier against
insects, though my studies here
need more attention. Native squashes
and gourds are set when the dogwood
flowers, and tomatoes during
the mayfly hatch. This conveys somewhat
my manner of gardening. I would
continue but that in the mere telling
I grow fatigued, and must ask myself why,
yearly, I engage in it with such ardor,
since I am without family. For the surety
of plenty? Or the images such growth
alone provides? Or because I do better
with vegetable kind than human
(no easy admission), and have come to
myself more than once knocking upon
and addressing a blue squash
of five-stone weight and pebbled like
the back of an alligator? By the time
of the Perseids, when my turnips go in
for autumn, I am as weary as some
old king fighting his battle with the sea,
down on hands and knees in that
riptide of beans and cabbage splashes,
a spume of chickweed flying over
my shoulders, wishing I had never listened
for spring peepers chiming their long,
ghostly sleigh rides through the dark.

- Poem included with the author's permission.

Poetry Month at the Library

We all know that April showers bring May flowers, but did you know that April also brings Poetry Month? Join the celebration daily in the Teen Room, where the poem of the day is showcased each afternoon at 3:07. Teens who would like to take a more active role can sign up to choose and read a showcase poem.



Sixth grader Nabi Tall at the 2010
ceremony. Here's an excerpt from
his poem The Everlasting Crusade:
Do they know of the word truce,

Of all the war they can reduce

If they just let loose

The rope between each other

Now I do not wish to go too deep

In the abstract swoosh and sweep

But let me ask before I sleep

What would you risk

What would you leave

For what you think is right?



For Cambridge poets in grades K-8 who want to share their original work with a larger audience, the Children's staff at the Central Square Branch is again managing the city-wide Cambridge Public Library/Cambridge Tree Project Poetry Competition. This is the 13th year of the competition. Last year there were almost 900 entries. The Friends of the Cambridge Public Library are proud to sponsor the prizes which are given to first through third place winners as well as to those receiving honorable mention. Karen Carmean of the Cambridge Tree Project serves as one of the judges and also provides additional prizes for poems about trees.

This year the prizes will be awarded at a ceremony and reading on Thursday, May 19 at 6:00 PM in the Main Library's lecture hall.  The ceremony is a special event for the poets, their families, and the library staff. Amanda Gazin, Central Square Children's Librarian, wrote of last year's celebration, "We had a segment of family poems that had just about everyone choked up--a sixth grader's loving poem to her mother; another sixth grader's wrenching poem of loss about her absent dad; a kindergartener's wonderful poem about a game he plays with his dad." Check our blog after the 19th to read more about this year's ceremony.

You can email your entry to agazin@cambridgema.gov . Please put your poem in the body of the message rather than as an attachment.  The entry deadline is Friday, April 29th.

There are always great things happening at the library!  For more information on how you can get involved with the Friends of the Cambridge Public Library, click here.