Leaning Towards Light: Poems for Gardens and the Hands that Tend Them ed Tess Taylor 2023
This compact volume is quite wonderful, a great read for anybody who loves to garden or enjoy the fruits of a garden, i.e. just about everyone!
Taylor has combined poems from the well known with works by lesser known poets in an effective manner. The seven sections (Planting and Sprouting; Weeding and Wilding; Growing and Tending; Being and Waiting; Grieving and Release; Harvest and Feeding; and Wintering and Turning Again group poems by theme and provide a sense of moving through the seasons.
Some of my favorite poets (Merwin, Hirshfield, Frost, Whitman, Doty, Gay, Kunitz, CD Wright, Burt, and Salter) conribute gems while poets unknown to me provide some wonderful lines as in the following: “a thistle/bends toward light/despite it all”; “fierce poignancy” referring to fennel’s odor upon brushing against the plant; “pulling weeds, picking stones,/we are made of dreams and bones”; “Everything a little-late-May-still-wet”; “Some effort of light keeps the dusk unfinished.” Great words in great order!
The book includes a prose essay and a recipe to introduce each section, and many of those recipes will find their way to Vermont next summer.
The first poem in the book is by Ross Gay and is a tribute to Eric Garner.
A Small Needful Fact
Is that Eric Garner worked
for some time for the Parks and Rec.
Horticultural Department, which means,
perhaps, that with his very large hands,
perhaps, in all likelihood,
he put gently into the earth
some plants which, most likely,
some of them, in all likelihood,
continue to grow, continue
to do what such plants do, like house
and feed small and necessary creatures,
like being pleasant to touch and smell,
like converting sunlight
into food, like making it easier
for us to breathe.
This would be a fine holiday, birthday, anniversary present for anyone you know who likes to get their hands dirty and who thinks compost is even better than single malt Scotch.
