Photo: thefrillyapron.com
Yesterday
Yesterday, side-by-side
you and I toiled in our garden.
You piled leaves in rows,
(mounds of leaves like tombs
of Chinese Emperors.)
You watched me prune
the ravished peonies,
(leaves gnawed into lacy filigree
by a band of determined earwigs.)
I cut the canes into small pieces
that wouldn’t pierce the plastic bag.
Yesterday you culled the fruit,
(tomatoes that survived the frost)
Yesterday, when darkness folded in
upon the day and left our garden empty
You said Goodbye, said Good things
cannot last forever.
You closed the door behind you
when you abandoned us.
Yesterday.
Photo: D. Slotto
Today
Today, I plant new seedlings,
pull knee-high weeds—
born of the seeds we fed the sparrows and the wrens.
Fresh nectar now awaits the hummers,
oriole’s bright flash of orange.
I find new life in garden’s gold,
taste hope within a budding rose
and nurture in earth’s fragrance.
Strength from within
unfolds in sunshine’s warmth.
The scent of flowering vines,
the touch of velvet petals,
robins’ songs,
all life has to offer,
will fill this dreadful void.
Still I await
the creaking sound of garden’s gate,
await your sweet return.
Tomorrow.
Photo: allaboutrosegardening.com
Today, for dVerse Poetics, Marina Sofia invites us to write to the theme: Shattering the World and Rebuilding It. I felt stuck in responding to this prompt (not that I’ve never had to go through this before) so I decided to choose a FICTIONAL poem that I wrote in 2010 or 2011 and write a response to it. Grateful to repeat that this is fiction.
Victoria C. Slotto, Author 
Lovely … I could picture every word as I read them.
Always creating magical prose and poetry, Victoria.
LikeLike
What an original take on Marina’s prompt.
Wish I’d thought of it.
This may be fictitional for your garden, but it is a true fact in mine. I’ve abandoned hope and embraced letting go, to save my sanity. No longer RHS but now a nature reserve. Not bad at all, as wildflowers keep on popping up in unexpected places and the butterflies, small rodents, snakes even and the most amazing plants from wherever make it a haven for them and for us now.
“You can’t always get what you want – but sometimes get what you need”
No digging, no pruning, no feeding, very little weeding, no chemicals, no mowing, I tell you, wish we had started decades ago.
Open your gate – wide.
LikeLike
the garden, and the cycle of life is the perfect setting for these, very nicely done.
LikeLike
Beautiful!!! 🙂
LikeLike
I love the answer to the first poem. The imagery is wonderfully apt.
LikeLike
beautiful post.
LikeLike
Fiction or not, the pair can touch those that need touching. Your images are so friendly!
LikeLike
Since I’ve had my own little garden to manage, I’ve come to appreciate how what happens there is so similar to what happens everywhere. The circle of life recreates itself in every nook and cranny, doesn’t it?
LikeLike
wonderful metaphors in use…love both parts and glad that it’s fictional.
LikeLike
Whoa…I like what you have written…but I’m not sure…still I remember when my son left to make his way in the world, I grieved in the garden, felt like I would die…waited to hear the garden gate creak, and his return, and in time he did, now he has left for the last time…I cannot say where I will find comfort….perhaps it is just time?
LikeLike
As always……….. The fiction is so good………. then reality………..
LikeLike
Phew! I got such a shock with the first part and I’m so glad to learn that it is fictional. There is nothing like a day of working in a garden to restore sanity, even though nowadays for “day” read five minutes.
LikeLike
I am glad it is fiction…but the idea is quite believable and many a woman has felt this I think; hope he never returns to disrupt her new peace in the garden…I don’t think he could if he tried, though.
LikeLike
What a great metaphor – the miracle that is a garden and a human heart, that hope can spring again… Beautifully captured! (And I love the fact that you have to emphasise it’s fictional…)
LikeLike
finding balance again after someone we love has left is a huge things – and probably evens the ground for their return as well…love the hope in the close – and glad it’s fictional
LikeLike
There is a gentleness of planting.. All that goes on while the sad abandonment of leaving.. Still there’s hope for tomorrow.. Like strength drawn from the soil and seed…
LikeLike
Glad to hear that this is fiction too… Great hopeful response to the original poem.
LikeLike
I am glad to hear that this is fiction. 🙂 I hope with the narrator for tomorrow. This poem is very visual and vivid, Victoria. 🙂
LikeLike
Very nicely done–both the undoing and the healing. Glad to know this is fictional for you. For many I am sure it is all too real.
LikeLike
I love the use of the garden, yesterday & today ~ The gardening and greening speaks so much of our desire for new beginnings ~ Hope your own garden is blooming with earth’s fragrance ~
LikeLike
abandoned is such a hard word…and a hard feeling as well…
i am glad for the aniticipation at the end of the second of the return….
LikeLike
I am glad it is fiction but you have written it to perfection. I love the hope of the second poem, waiting for the creak of the gate and the loved one’s return. Beautifully done.
LikeLike
It works so beautifully Victoria. I liked the transformation of one to the other. Well done.
LikeLike
A garden is a wonderful metaphor here-we return as the seasons call us I think–beautiful work!
LikeLike
What a fabulous “call and response” set, Victoria. And I am so glad to know it is fictional!
LikeLike
How did I know that you were a grower, a gardener, an earth matron?
Just another passionate parcel of your poetic personality, right? First poem, beautiful but chilling; second poem sunbeams, blossoms, & rays of hope; very nice pair, dear lady–& I mean the poetics, of course.
LikeLike
Mine for today is here: http://beachanny.blogspot.com/2014/06/broken-and.html
LikeLike
How beautiful – the metaphor of growing, planting, pruning, letting go, holding on by holding hope. Exquisite poem, Victoria.
LikeLike