Unknown reader, be glad that I have opened the door and let out

the dust of my verse for you to see an age after the words first found form on the screen, or

perhaps I have let in your imagination so, turning, you can see a single almond

blossom, pink amongst its pale russet leaves, to tempt your words out

Unknown traveller, on this day, stay, venture out

and, before they fade,...

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While Moira stinted not on Jacob's Creek

Red wine was a fine art I never mastered

That Saturday night was an epic session

We strode naked in her garden, plastered

My memory of events is somewhat vague

A thorn ripped the seat of my underpants

Then I was rolling about the grass, stinking

Of cat-shit, eaten alive by nocturnal ants

Moira was concerned about a hedgehog

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memories taste

like snowflakes on my tongue

and melt in my soul

love remains

like ice on the garden pond

in the memory of water

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The rose recognizes the beauty of the sunflower, all the while self-assured in her own. She does not envy the golden beauty for her appeal to you

She knows better - she has guarded her stem from the likes of your fingers and the fingers of those before you, and the ones that will come after

She knows that while you, selfishly and ignorantly, believe the garden to be created for you...

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My beautiful Spanish Rose, 

  the most fragrant flower

    in a crowded garden,

      withstanding harsh winters

        and choking weeds

          to remain

unplucked.

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https://youtu.be/QVZ7RGypMWI

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The old man stepped out into the garden and stood in the sunshine. Warm, yes, but not too warm to work. He collected the battered barrow from the shed. In it a kneeler and a bucket containing gloves, a trowel and secateurs.

There had been five weeks without significant rain and at the end temperatures had been up in the mid to high thirties. Now, after some good downpours, the garden was just ...

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Long!

Long I laboured

through the seasons

through the years

working

on the plot:

delighting

as digging blistered my palms

and the soil grew fertile

as digging pained my back

and plants grew strong -

grew verdant

beside the deep dug pond

with its little stream

where I placed fish

an unplanned golden feast for a heron

and an otter

And as e...

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I step out

Into that mystic choir

That holds my heart

Where time, standing still,

Moves with the seasons

Quietly changing my world

With its elemental tune

While my song is barely heard:

A contrapuntal whisper

Struggling for harmony

For my land is my chancel

Hymns hum soft on its breezes

And prayer rises in its stillness

In this quiet place of remembrance

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Let me return to past, let me recall tonight
With me cries, each corner and wall tonight

What let flowers to slit throat in my garden
Who has invoked the curse to fall tonight

My screams have awoken people from sleep
Separation to be mourned in rainfall tonight?

He might be Abbas-e-Ali collecting tears
Mourners have sighted him tall tonight

Mirza, your phone is ringing since evenin...

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The empty stems of the fennel

Under umbrella heads of raindrops

Are perches for the waiting birds

The grey green sage leaves

Glow crystal white in the frost

Moss grows where the branch

Leaves the trunk of the bonsai

Its ruddy leaves falling

Amongst the yellowing leaves

A single crimson rose bud perishes

Yellow leaves have fallen from the dogwood

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What is that glint

                as the sod breaks and crumbles:

a sparkling hint

                of discovery

                as I dig the dusty summer soil?

This old garden has gained lost treasures

                of man, woman and child for centuries -

                What lies uncovered?

Teased from the clod

                I find a tiny glass heart and this ...

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Much more than half my life ago

Some chance led us to this place;

Now, my heart is caught and held

By the peace of its earth and space.

Some while past, when first she left me

I could not make my soul adjust

But cached it safe within the plot

Beside her memory and her mortal dust.

And as the family aged and spread

My lonely tenancy grew content

Past spectres...

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