The Good Life is Gardening
Plant and plough, for the hard earth’s hardening.
And remember, in summer, at the ripe fruit’s dearth,
That the good life is gardening.
Soil gives, for sins of bookishness, toil’s pardoning.
In the soul’s fields, idleness cracks the earth—
So plant and plough, for the hard earth’s hardening.
For neighbor-hood, for friendships’ farthering,
Together dig the ground, find the small pea’s worth,
And love. For the good life is gardening.
Our arms grow weak with gold and stocks and garnering,
Garnered for ease, to electrify our hearths,
For plastic plants and ploughs, for the hard earth’s hardening.
From spreadsheets, codes, from white-grey lights—come out! Your tools want sharpening.
You’ve forgotten what it is to watch the ground give birth,
Forgotten the good life is gardening.
When we find concrete cruel, paper work disheartening,
O let us dig, and God’s sweaty, soily mirth,
Let us plant and plough, for this hard earth is hardening—
And let us find, dirt-dusted, the good life in our gardening.
Brendon Sylvester is a poet and teacher. He lives in Pennsylvania, and he serves as poetry editor for the Anselm Society.
Amethyst Review 