A garden should make you feel you’ve entered privileged space – a place not just set apart but reverberant – and it seems to me that, to achieve this, the gardener must put some kind of twist on the existing landscape, turn its prose into something nearer poetry.
— Michael Pollan, Second Nature
I love that word reverberant.
Below are links to the poems from which I have taken snippets for many of my posts over the last five years (although it does need a little updating at the moment).
Please click on the title of a poem to link to its full text. Click on the poet’s name to link to a seller of one of his or her books (usually amazon.com or Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon). The links to the sellers are not endorsements; I do not receive any compensation for them.
For my blogroll, please see the sidebar to the right.
BEING and EMOTION
“Time” by Mary Ursula Bethell
(post link: Garden of the mind)
“The Garden Buddha” by Peter Pereira
(post link: )
“Goldenrod” by Ian Parks
(post link: Recent finds)
“Blind Joy” by John Frederick Nims
(post link: All our joy)
“Of Mere Being” by Wallace Stevens
(post link: The winter garden: palms)
“The Public Garden” by Robert Lowell
(post link: Take children, add water, part II)
“A Country Incident” by May Sarton
(post link: sidebar epigraph)
“The Waste Land” by John Beer
(post link: The Sunday porch: Palo Alto, Louisiana)
“Spring” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
(post link: Bloom Day in April: purple irises)
“On a View of Pasadena from the Hills” by Yvor Winters
(post link: Smiley Heights)
“VIA” (48 Dante Variations) by Caroline Bergvall
(post link: Rocky road)
“Fanny” by Carolyn Kizer
(post link: Coleslaw, anyone?)
CHILDREN
“To Any Reader” by Robert Louis Stevenson
(post link: Paul et Henri)
“Little Girl” by Tami Haaland
(post link: The Sunday porch: as backdrop)
“Loving and Liking: Irregular Verses Addressed to a Child” by Dorothy Wordsworth
(post link: Belesta, France)
“Bon Courage” by Amy Gerstler
(post link: Summer shimmer)
“A Girl Playing in a Sandbox” by David Wagoner
(post link: The Sunday porch: New York City)
COLOR
“Love in the Valley” by George Meredith
(post link: )
“This is the Garden” by e.e. cummings
(post link: Ribbon trees in Chicago)
“Blue” by Robert L. Jones
(post link: Evolvulus ‘Blue Sapphire’)
“Digging Deeper” by Phillip Carroll Morgan
(post link: O cabbage gardens)
FAUNA
“Loving and Liking: Irregular Verses Addressed to a Child” by Dorothy Wordsworth
(post link: Belesta, France)
“Your head is a living forest full of song birds” by e.e. cummings
(post link: Baskets in the trees)
“The Little Walls Before China” by A.F. Moritz
(post link: Les bovins)
“Summer of the Ladybirds” by Vivian Smith
(post link: )
FINE DESIGN
“Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle IV” by Alexander Pope
(post link: )
“Windsor Forest” by Alexander Pope
(post link: )
“This is the Garden” by e.e. cummings
(post link: Ribbon trees in Chicago)
“Recollections of the Arabian Nights” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
(post link: Shadow-chequer’d lawn)
“The Parlement of Foulys” by Geoffrey Chaucer
(post link: The Sunday porch: Wellington)
“In the Bower of Bliss – Faerie Queene” by Edmund Spenser
(post link: The heirloom garden in early fall)
“The Botanic Garden” by Erasmus Darwin
(post link: The capitol and the conservatory)
“I Wasn’t One of the Six Million: And What Is My Life Span? Open Closed Open” by Yehuda Amichai (translated by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld)
(post link: )
FLORA
“Delia 31” by Samuel Daniel
(post link: Foix, France)
“The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers” by Andrew Marvell
(post link: Bloom Day in March)
Saigyo Hoshi, Japanese poet, 1118-1190
(post link: Cherry tree clouds)
Ruan Dacheng, Chinese poet (1587-1646)
(post link: Creeping fig)
“Symphony of a Mexican Garden” by Grace Hazard Conkling
(post link: Vintage hibiscus blossoms)
“Summer Images” by John Clare
(post link: A view of Sibylle’s garden)
“Sonnet” by Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson
(post link: The winter garden: the White House )
“A Bouquet of Zinnias” by Mona Van Duyn
(post link: Zinnias)
“Cabbage Gardens” by Susan Howe
(post link: Flowers and cabbages)
“Fanny” by Carolyn Kizer
(post link: Coleslaw, anyone?)
“The Dandelion’s pallid tube” by Emily Dickinson
(post link: Salute to early Spring)
“Goldenrod” by Ian Parks
(post link: Recent finds)
“The Garden by Moonlight” by Amy Lowell
(post link: )
“Sunflower Sutra” by Allen Ginsberg
(post link: Burgundy sunflowers)
“The Parlement of Foulys” by Geoffrey Chaucer
(post link: The Sunday porch: Wellington)
“Saguaro” by Brenda Hillman
(post link: The winter garden: cacti in Pittsburgh)
“Planting the Sand Cherry” by Ann Struthers
(post link: Prairie strip, Washington, D.C.)
“Loveliest of trees, the cherry now” by A. E. Housman
(post link: Painting the cherry blossoms)
“Backyard Georgics” by Lance Larsen
(post link: Back on the sidewalk in Washington)
“A Sprig of Dill” by Howard Nemerov
(post link: Dill(flowers) and sunflowers)
“The Waste Land” by John Beer
(post link: The Sunday porch: Palo Alto, Louisiana)
“Extreme Wisteria” by Lucie Brock-Broido
(post link: The Sunday porch: vine-covered, par excellence)
“Hymn to Life” by James Schuyler
(post link: Early pink magnolias)
“Public Garden” by Alvaro Garcia, from Para lo que no existe
(post link: The sago palms)
“Wild Peaches” by Elinor Wylie
(post link: )
“The Cycads” by Judith Wright
(post link: Portrait of the old king)
“Totem Poem” by Luke Davies
(post link: Vintage landscape: lilac bush)
“More Than Enough” by Marge Piercy
(post link: Summer shimmer)
“Bon Courage” by Amy Gerstler
(post link: Summer shimmer)
“Learning the Trees” by Howard Nemerov
(post link: Meridian Hill Park)
“Summer Solstice” by Stacie Cassarino
(post link: The hollows)
“Digging Deeper” by Phillip Carroll Morgan
(post link: O cabbage gardens)
FORSAKEN GARDENS
“A Forsaken Garden” by Algernon Charles Swinburne
(post link: Ruins)
“Time” by Mary Ursula Bethell
(post link: Plant list – Rwanda)
“In an Abandoned Garden” by Han-Shan (translated by Burton Watson)
“The Walled Garden at Clondalkin” by May Sarton
(post link: Bagatelle Garden)
“The Waste Carpet” by William Matthews” target=”_blank”>William Matthews
(post link: sidebar epigraph and The way we live (green) now in Rwanda)
LIFE IN GARDENS
“On a View of Pasadena from the Hills” by Yvor Winters
(post link: Smiley Heights)
“a song in the front yard” by Gwendolyn Brooks
(post link: The Sunday porch: behind Randolph Street)
“Happiness” by Paisley Rekdal
(post link: Locke garden)
“My Garden” by Thomas Edward Brown
(post link: sidebar epigraph)
“A King’s Garden World” by Saba (Fath Ali Khan)
(post link: sidebar epigraph)
“Talking Back to the Mad World” by Sarah C. Harwell
(post link: sidebar epigraph)
“Design in Living Colors” by Adrienne Rich
(post link: Life in gardens: Cornusson)
“Solitude” by John Clare
(post link: sidebar epigraph)
“A Country Incident” by May Sarton
(post link: sidebar epigraph)
“Blind Joy” by John Frederick Nims
(post link: All our joy)
“This is the Garden” by e.e. cummings
(post link: Ribbon trees in Chicago)
“A Summer Garden” by Louise Gluck
(post link: The Sunday porch: Pompeii atrium )
“I Wasn’t One of the Six Million: And What Is My Life Span? Open Closed Open” by Yehuda Amichai (translated by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld)
(post link: )
“The Waste Carpet” by William Matthews” target=”_blank”>William Matthews
(post link: The way we live (green) now in Rwanda)
“To Any Reader” by Robert Louis Stevenson
(post link: Paul et Henri)
“Little Girl” by Tami Haaland
(post link: The Sunday porch: as backdrop)
“The Public Garden” by Robert Lowell
(post link: Take children, add water, part II)
“Fanny” by Carolyn Kizer
(post link: Coleslaw, anyone?)
“Symphony of a Mexican Garden” by Grace Hazard Conkling
(post link: Napier, New Zealand)
“Spring” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
(post link: Bloom Day in April: purple irises)
LOVE
“At a Window” by Carl Sandburg
(post link: The winter garden: Illinois farmhouse)
“En Eski Aşk Şiiri” by Jessica Jopp
(post link: On the Second Day of Christmas)
“Wild Peaches” by Elinor Wylie
(post link: )
“The Waste Land” by John Beer
(post link: The Sunday porch: Palo Alto, Louisiana)
“Totem Poem” by Luke Davies
(post link: Vintage landscape: lilac bush)
“Summer Solstice” by Stacie Cassarino
(post link: The hollows)
“A Song: When June is past, the fading rose” by Thomas Carew
(post link: )
“Summer Solstice” by Stacie Cassarino
(post link: The hollows)
ORNAMENT
“The Public Garden” by Robert Lowell
(post link: Take children, add water, part II)
“The Garden Buddha” by Peter Pereira
(post link: )
“The Bench,” by Mary Ruefle
(post link: The bench)
PLACE
“Time” by Mary Ursula Bethell
(post link: Garden of the mind)
“This is the Garden” by e.e. cummings
(post link: Ribbon trees in Chicago)
“Escape Architecture” by Ange Mlinko
(post link: The Sunday porch: dogtrot in Texas)
“En Eski Aşk Şiiri” by Jessica Jopp
(post link: On the Second Day of Christmas)
“Houston in the Early Eighties” by Jessica Greenbaum
(post link: The Sunday porch: Houston, Texas)
“City Elegies — I. The Day Dreamers” by Robert Pinsky
(post link: Here’s one little dream)
“City Elegies — III. House Hour” by Robert Pinsky
(post link: The Sunday porch: Petworth rowhouses)
“I Wasn’t One of the Six Million: And What Is My Life Span? Open Closed Open” by Yehuda Amichai (translated by Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld)
(post link: )
“Fanny” by Carolyn Kizer
(post link: Coleslaw, anyone?)
“Hymn to Life” by James Schuyler
(post link: Early pink magnolias)
“Wild Peaches” by Elinor Wylie
(post link: )
“Winesaps” by Dave Smith
(post link: Boxwood path)
READING
“In an Abandoned Garden” by Han-Shan (translated by Burton Watson)]
SEASONS AND WEATHER
“A Song: When June is past, the fading rose” by Thomas Carew
(post link: )
“Spring” by Edna St. Vincent Millay
(post link: Bloom Day in April: purple irises)
“Spring” by Gerard Manley Hopkins
“Work without Hope” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(post link: February flowers)
“The Question” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
(post link: )
“A Winter Night” by Robert Burns
(post link: A winter’s night)
“The Dandelion’s pallid tube” by Emily Dickinson
(post link: Salute to early Spring)
“A Summer Garden” by Louise Gluck
(post link: The Sunday porch: Pompeii atrium )
“More Than Enough” by Marge Piercy
(post link: Summer shimmer)
“The Public Garden” by Robert Lowell
(post link: Take children, add water, part II)
“The Snow-Storm” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
(post link: Lafayette Square)
“Snow Becoming Light by Morning” by Jill Osier
(post link: Lafayette Square)
“if i have made, my lady” by e.e. cummings
(post link: )
“Son of Fog” by Dean Young
(post link: Our garden in fog)
“A.M. Fog.” by Mark Jarman
(post link: Our garden in fog)
“Backyard Georgics” by Lance Larsen
(post link: Back on the sidewalk in Washington)
“Wild Peaches” by Elinor Wylie
(post link: )
“Totem Poem” by Luke Davies
(post link: Vintage landscape: lilac bush)
“The Picture of Little T.C. in a Prospect of Flowers” by Andrew Marvell
(post link: Bloom Day in March)
“As imperceptibly as grief” by Emily Dickinson
(post link: Into the beautiful )
“Storm Ending” by Jean Toomer
(post link: Clear sailing)
SPIRIT/GOD/MAGIC
“A King’s Garden World” by Saba (Fath Ali Khan)
(post link: sidebar epigraph)
Epitaph for the Tradescants by John Aubrey
(post link: sidebar epigraph and Just because. . .)
“Sonnet” by Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson
(post link: The winter garden: the White House )
“A Country Incident” by May Sarton
(post link: sidebar epigraph)
“The Little Walls Before China” by A.F. Moritz
(post link: Les bovins)
“Song of Fairies Robbing an Orchard” by Leigh Hunt
(post link: Land of Flowers)
“To Any Reader” by Robert Louis Stevenson
(post link: Paul et Henri)
“A Sprig of Dill” by Howard Nemerov
(post link: Dill(flowers) and sunflowers)
“A Forsaken Garden” by Algernon Charles Swinburne
(post link: Ruins)
“The Shadow on the Stone” by Thomas Hardy
(post link: The Sunday porch: Druid Hill Park)
WEEDS AND THE WILD
“Inversnaid” by Gerard Manley Hopkins
(post link: Beautiful weeds)
“A Forsaken Garden” by Algernon Charles Swinburne
(post link: Ruins)
“Epistles to Several Persons: Epistle IV” by Alexander Pope
(post link: )
“Planting the Sand Cherry” by Ann Struthers
(post link: Prairie strip, Washington, D.C.)
“In an Abandoned Garden” by Han-Shan (translated by Burton Watson)
“A Forsaken Garden” by Algernon Charles Swinburne
“Summer Solstice” by Stacie Cassarino
(post link: The hollows)
WORK
“A Country Incident” by May Sarton
(post link: sidebar epigraph)
“Time” by Mary Ursula Bethell
(post link: Garden of the mind)
“Fanny” by Carolyn Kizer
(post link: Coleslaw, anyone?)
