English Garden

Memories of my garden in England

Are you still there Espalier?

Do your arthritic fingers clutch the kitchen wall
while you birth your summer blushed fruits?
Blanched flesh dribbling.
Does the moss trimmed quilt placed at your feet
bleach rosy in the insipid sun,
and shock scarlet with the rains?

Does thyme march over the rockery wall
and dandelions count your days
with feathery clocks?
A drifting calendar that lingers on your
seasoned trunk.

Is Rowan guarding the door?
Pinnate leaves buffeted by westerlies.
While runes course his berried branches,
a crimson warning for the dark ones
to stay away.

Author's Note

The Rowan tree is connected with witch craft and was used to ward off witches. My son's name is also Rowan.

Reviews

[Jack...]

Very cool. I live in Texas but have what I call an English Garden (well at least that is what I call it) and I read your comment below and might have to see if I can plant a Mountain Ash in the front of it.

Your style is quite unique and paints a fragrant portrait of how nature is used and percieved to be a used to ward off evil. Very nice.

[Britannia]

An English garden is what you want it to be...but I am sure a Mountain Ash would be a good compliment, but not sure that it would take the Texas heat! I have been trying to grow one in New York and it struggled for about 5 years and is only just taking off... although I can see it does not enjoy the hot dry summers. May be there is another remedy for witches you can use. lol

Thanks for your comments on my poem. Very encouraging.

[Angi]

This sounds like a lovely garden. (If you are not a dark one, that is. Ha!) I have read about Rowan trees that are planted to stand guard against evil spells. I am in South Carolina, (too hot for them here) I wonder what else I can plant to ward off witches?! Nicely done, Britannia. Angi~

[Sami Khalil]

A splendid read and write...:)

[Britannia]

Another note to American readers...

In England we call the fluffy seedhead of the dandelion a clock. As children we use it to tell the time by blowing on it. The number of puffs is the hour... always inaccurate! lol See below from Wiki...

Dandelion clock (plural dandelion clocks)
The white seed head of a dandelion after flowering.
A children's amusement in which the number of puffs needed to blow the filamentous achenes from a dandelion is supposed to tell the time.

[Shaun Payton]

This was pretty good. Nice imagery. A tree to ward off witches..interesting

[Britannia]

Thanks Shaun. Traditionally the boughs were hung above the door to keep the witches away. Now a days many English gardens have a Rowan tree (Mountain Ash) in the front yard and I always wonder if this stems from the ancient tradition.

[Shaun Payton]

Perhaps it does. Wonder if it works