Saturday, December 1

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day - December


The winter evening settles down
With smell of steaks in passageways.
Six o’clock.
The burnt-out ends of smoky days.
And now a gusty shower wraps
The grimy scraps
Of withered leaves about your feet
And newspapers from vacant lots;
The showers beat
On broken blinds and chimney-pots,
And at the corner of the street
A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps.
And then the lighting of the lamps.
- from Preludes by T.S. Eliot

Posted in honor of Garden Bloggers' Muse Day, the newspaper and other items that I picked up in the yard, the gusty shower that drove me inside and is now slickening the sidewalks, the leftover steak that the dog is about to eat, and the three beech leaves that I picked off of my shoes once I returned to the house.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh, Kim....about my favourite poet ever is T. S. Eliot. Of course, I read the line, "burnt-out ends of smoky days," and promptly got "Memory" from CATS stuck in my head. Wonderful post, and accompanying photograph.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

The poem is so appropo Kim.

Sweet Home and Garden Carolina said...

Brilliant, Kim, and so fitting. Thanks for participating.

Anonymous said...

Lovely poem and love your previous post with the luscious fall foliage! The pyracantha and pink look marvelous together!

Mr. McGregor's Daughter said...

So, I take it your not 1 of those people who love December & Christmas. No Winterwonderland or White Christmas sentiments, eh? Well, I liked the poem. So call me Mrs. Scrooge. (I am married to Scrooge after all.) :^}

Connie said...

Lovely poem! Thanks for sharing.

joey said...

Poignant poem, Kim. Leave it to 'never compromising' T.S. Eliot and you for finding a fitting poem depicting the season ...

Digital Flower Pictures said...

Nice poem.

Re: your older post on Ninebark. Opulifolius actually refers to the fact the leaves are like Cranberry Viburnum (Viburnum opulus). Opulus, I think, has something to do with the leaves being Maple like.

If your Ninebark is relatively new it could be just settling in and that could explain the small leaves (just a theory).

You are the only person I have seen that grows 'Northern Halo' Hosta, although I am sure there are 1000's of others. It is one of my favorite Hostas.

Unknown said...

Jodi, that's my favorite line in the poem! Burnt is such a great word for poetry... so blunt as to bring the acrid smell of smoke right into your nose as you read it.

Lisa, thanks. :)

Carolyn Gail, thanks for starting this tradition!

mr. mcgregor's daughter, I actually do like December. I love that it contains the darkest night of the year, and now that I'm not buying into as much of the Christmas insanity of years past (although I'm not a humbug, either! lol) I'm enjoying that holiday much more as well.

connie, thank you--and thanks for stopping by. :)

Joey, I've not known/read as much of T.S. Eliot as I would like... I might have to remedy that this winter!

digital flower pictures, hmm.... that's not a bad theory, either. I wonder if the truth behind those tiny leaves is somewhere in the combination?

I LOVE 'Northern Halo' hosta, by the way. I don't think that I have it sited quite right (and I know it gets more sun than it probably wants) but it's just such an elegant little thing combined with my Japanese anemones and Japanese cutleaf maple that I can't bring myself to move it. Where do you have yours sited?

Annie in Austin said...

Listen to DFP, Kim - my Encyclopedia book said Guelder rose and Viburnum opulus comes up in searches for that name.

Annie

Digital Flower Pictures said...

Hi Kim,

Mine are planted alongside little patch of lawn fronting some Dwarf Mountain Laurel, Rhododendrons and Azaleas. I am going to divide them next year and hope to mix some in to the Fern collection. They only last until mid-summer usually then the deer get them.

Just a guess on the Ninebark and time will tell. Now that think about it I did notice when I cut some back, almost to the ground, the leaves came back very small. I will have to see what they do next year.

Benjamin Vogt said...

Eliot is one of my favorites--have you read James Wright?

David (Snappy) said...

Very atmospheric poem Kim!I am sat in the glow of the Xmas tree, reading your blog posts.I like T S Elliot.
It certainly is dark here a lot now, only 8 hours of light a day :)
Time enough to browse seed and flower catalogues, and plan the summers colours!

lisa said...

Very appropo, Kim! I hope the ice storm didn't hit you too hard!

Anonymous said...

I really like Eliot - nice choice. I need to think about participating in this, but I fear I'd try to write my own poetry and it'd be awful and well, I'd embarrass myself (not like I don't already) and there'd be a spiral downward and...oh, I'll shut up and pour a glass of wine!

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