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This walk was from June 3rd. Still catching up!
I have the impression that Emily Dickinson enjoyed the companionship of her large dog, Carlo, while she tended her garden. I used to discuss things with Larisa’s tabby cat, Mary, while I was planting and weeding my little plot. She was always interested in what I was up to and what I thought about this or that. Emily’s poetic musings…
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Within my Garden, rides a Bird
Opon a single Wheel —
Whose spokes a dizzy music make
As ’twere a travelling Mill —
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He never stops, but slackens
Above the Ripest Rose —
Partakes without alighting
And praises as he goes,
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Till every spice is tasted —
And then his Fairy Gig
Reels in remoter atmospheres —
And I rejoin my Dog,
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And He and I, perplex us
If positive, ’twere we —
Or bore the Garden in the Brain
This Curiosity —
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But He, the best Logician,
Refers my clumsy eye —
To just vibrating Blossoms!
An exquisite Reply!
~ Emily Dickinson
(The Poems of Emily Dickinson, #370)
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So everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow cycles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.
~ May Sarton
(Journal of a Solitude)
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My mother’s favorite flower was lily of the valley. She also had an andromeda shrub planted in the front yard, right near the dining room window.
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A garden isn’t meant to be useful. It’s for joy.
~ Rumer Godden
(China Court: A Novel)