(remind me of you)
My Dad loved gardening, and loved the hardy red geraniums he grew. So I learned to love them too. I’ve brought them to every home I’ve had, in every climate; waiting eagerly to see their cheery faces – even when bushfire summer cloaked the sky in smoke, even when all other flowers wilted fast …
rainy autumn –
my red geraniums
finally bloom
When Grandma came to stay, she told my Dad it would be good for me to start my own little garden. He gave me a tiny trowel. Soon I dug up a huge coil of grey slime, semi-transparent, as long as my five-year-old hand and nearly as thick. It moved blindly through the suddenly-exposed earth. I gagged, ran crying … and never became a gardener. Now at last, in old age, I do a little pruning and weeding when the cooler weather begins – by which time it’s needed.
after
the hot wet summer
healthy weeds
It’s that time of year. Still warm, but not the fierce heat. Just now, no mosquitoes, no midges, no flies. Afternoon is golden, evening softly pleasant. I think of sitting out in my back yard, taking my book and my cuppa. Or I could do my meditation there. Or I might simply gaze at the trees against the sky, over my neighbours’ adjoining fences. But I’m still a little afraid that a tiny ghost might join me there, and I’m not yet readier to smile than weep if she did.
quiet garden –
the knowing eyes
of a small cat
Written for Weekly Scribblings #13: All The Small Things at Poets and Storytellers United, and combined with the April 2020 NaPoWriMo Day 1 prompt at 'imaginary garden with real toads': April is for Fools and Poets. These are meant as individual haibun, but they do also form a sequence of sorts.
And a gorgeous sequence of sorts at that, Rosemary!❤️ These individual haibuns are brimming with love and life. Especially resonate with; "I think of sitting out in my back yard, taking my book and my cuppa."😍
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sanaa!
DeleteRed geraniums are special. I love them. They grow so easily from a simple cutting.
ReplyDeleteYes, even a non-gardener like me can manage them.
DeleteYour words remind me of how important it is to keep precious memories in practical ways, the red geraniums themselves, and how some memories are so tender, they may visit us on the softest paws.
ReplyDeleteKerry, that's such a sweetly worded comment, it made me tear up all over again!
DeleteWhat a coincidence! My daughter is planting red geraniums in her garden. I love them and look forward to seeing her garden when I can visit her again. When we’re allowed out again, I’ll buy some for our garden. I love your geranium haiku. I wrote a poem about geraniums last September – here’s a link: https://writinginnorthnorfolk.com/2019/09/05/geranium-revisited/
ReplyDeleteI love your autobiographical haibun, Rosemary. My daughter’s the gardener, while I let everything run wild. I prefer trees and shrubs to manicured lawns and precise flowerbeds.
That's my preference too!
DeleteOh, and thanks for reminding me about your geranium poem – which I love even more on second reading.
DeleteIt is that way too for me, that the simplest things sometimes are wound through so much of my life and who I am, that I can't help but be swept up in memories when I encounter them.
ReplyDeleteThose 'little things' are really so important!
DeleteYour words deserve a long, gentle, satisfied sigh ..... SIGH.
ReplyDeleteDelighted to have given you gentle satisfaction, Helen.
DeleteRosemary, I love this!! Your Grandma was dear to you, that is the way it should be. Mide was to me also though I am not sure she even had a garden. We did, a large one with a larger still potato patch. That was a good thing, I am a depression baby with no money to pay my delivery bill. Dad sold part of his very good crop that year to pay him.
ReplyDeleteI am not a gardener, never was my thumb green. But we have a beautiful back yard, garden like with a pool. We had no frost again this winter so everything started blooming in mid-January.
..
My Dad grew veggies too, and we had a strawberry patch thatI liked to sneak into to pick the new strawberries – although I wasn't allowed to.
DeleteI enjoyed this Had to laugh when you dug up the grey slime I would run off as well lol I love the garden though but my husband is the gardener so I am lucky
ReplyDelete'It's just a worm,' they said. But I have never again seen one like it. Mind you, I haven't exactly been looking hard!
DeleteI have so many memories connected to plants. Geraniums are so hardy. I have one that I've nursed (neglected) for two years, and it has a small bloom on it today. Love the mixture of prose and haiku. I need the warmth you brought with your words.
ReplyDeleteDear Susie, I'm glad my words gave you something you needed. xx
DeleteMy grandmother favored irises planted to the west of their house along the road. My folks had a vegetable garden and were not much on flowers but one row of peonies. Dark pink colors. I hadn't thought about that in a while and I thank you for sparking these thoughts, Rosemary.
ReplyDeleteMay your garden be full of bright and vibrant colors while the weeds fade away.
This took me back many years to the time when my brother and I were encouraged by Dad to have a small garden of our own to learn the basics. I was reasonably happy being a little impatient that things wouldn't grow quick enough for me but I stuck to it but my older brother gave it up thinking it was wasting his time!
ReplyDeletei like that, "healthy weeds". :)
ReplyDeleteyes, three short stories, running in a sequence.
Beautiful haibun, luv the companionship jn the final haiku
ReplyDeleteMuch❤love
I loved them all but the last, with the little ghost, brought tears to my eyes. I know what it's like to lose a little companion.
ReplyDeleteA lovely write, Rosemary. The loss of a beloved pet lingers long.
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely lovely...I smiled at the snake (the huge coil of grey slime) and truly understood the fear and deciding never to be a gardner..I hate snakes! But the lovely red geraniums and the sweet memories they evoke. I enjoyed being in your garden here with you...if even for just a while. And yes...it is a series of haiku but they take me into a space each time...a space that you obviously enjoy.
ReplyDeletePS: technical guru I am not. Doing the TOADs prompts but did not understand how to use Mr Linky for it until today...so my day 4 is finally in...and I'm enjoying going back and reading folks!
Oh, it wasn't a snake, Lillian. Remember, I was very small at the time, so what seemed huge to me was actually only a big, fat worm of some kind.
DeleteGad you figured out the linking!
The salve of the soul is to slip into the garden ... however small or large our efforts ... there is something miraculous about just infusing - letting the earth reward our simple act of noticing, being present and aware, of just looking .... of course, I'm biased - I once gardened for a living - so I'm always wandering in awe, wonder, breathless anticipation, and both impatience and patience.
ReplyDeleteThese are lovely thoughts Rosemary - a selection of moments rich for the memories and details, although the small child may still shudder in fear and horror. And a red sun-kissed geranium does bring a certain inexplicable comfort ... (even if not a preferred planting choice - just my thoughts, I've planted/used way too many of most varieties to find a binding attachment to red geraniums) ... but we receive peace of mind and heartfelt joy in unexpected ways - which is what makes life so rich. And perhaps, in time, as the stars gently twinkle on, you'll come to welcome the soft treading of paws as friend who brings warmth, even if your heart still hurts. Love transcends time and space, and bonds are everlasting.
Thanks for engaging so fully with this poem!
DeleteI am reminded of my aunt, who many years ago, always had boxes of geraniums on her window ledge. I did tear up at the end of this, but bittersweet memories are still memories.
ReplyDeleteWhen all’s said and done, I wouldn’t want to be without them.
DeleteAn iconic delight, Rosemary!
ReplyDelete