Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Home-Grown (Poem)

Home-Grown

The red geranium's leaf turns in
on itself, rolling up inside the wilt

that blights. I need to minimize
infection, finish with cuttings an end

begun as flowers fade. Already
it's late August. I pinch slips from stem

tips, fixing them a single inch in a mix
of perlite and sphagnum peat moss.

The trick to rooting successfully is
finding the place that nourishes deep,

out of the glare. North or east light
will do; holding back on water, too.

It takes time to get established. More
if you start from seed. In the tending

before the planting you can go so far.

© 2012 Maureen E. Doallas

12 comments:

Louise Gallagher said...

As fall approaches and I began to prepare to bring my plants in for the winter, this poem is such a beautiful description of the joy, and the process.

I love this...

"It takes time to get established. More/if you start from seed. In the tending/
before the planting you can go so far."

Lovely!

Hannah Stephenson said...

Being able to thrive....it looks more modest than it is.

Kathleen Overby said...

This blessed my gardener's heart. iLove propagation of any sort.

Anonymous said...

It takes time to get established...it is
a gentle art of abiding in what has been prepared.

Anonymous said...

This is just terrific - real/metaphoric, deceptively simple, beautiful cadence. k .

Susan Daniels said...

Ah--this gardener loves the tenderness in here, how much it says.

Brian Miller said...

The trick to rooting successfully is
finding the place that nourishes deep,

out of the glare...there is a terrific truth buried in that line...smiles.

Anonymous said...

wow..this was beautiful..speechless~~

Bubba said...

You can only go so far, or you can go too far, I suppose.

emmett wheatfall said...

Great poem for its teaching. It not only informs, but educates the reader poetically. Nice idea, and write.

Rosemary Nissen-Wade said...

Love this - description and instruction manual in one!

Jenne' R. Andrews said...

Exquisite-- so beautifully crafted and elegant-- I take it all as metaphor. But one can only go so far...xxxj