Paradise

-
Dear reader,

You may have watched 'Paradise Gardens' a brief but fascinating tour of Islamic gardens with Monty Don. It opened the eyes to see how many gardens have been influenced (even if unknowingly) by the idea of a garden made for contemplation.

Contemplation and reflection require a still mind.

Places in themselves are benign and inert - they only have a voice as they are filtered by our eyes and ears through the mysterious channels of our brain. It is a very human thing - but certain elements such as symmetry, water and sound enhance the effect in the human mind.

We can sit in the same space and have very different reactions to it depending on what is happening in our minds and what is happening to the weather and the light. In this country we are very much at the mercy of the weather in terms of contemplating paradise !

These fluctuations in our internal landscape and how they change our visual perceptions and self esteem fascinate me.



I wrote the following as a response to the idea of paradise being a garden.

Heaven in a garden
There is no heaven here today
Just a hard heart

I know where this hardness comes from
It comes from the heart of a banished tribe
Lost in genetic time

Last night I dreamt of gardens
Places of inspiration
Of the deep breath of the spirit

My lungs filled with sweet air
Of birdsong and incense
Of spikenard and flowers of the field - jasmine and orange blossom

But I have nothing to offer from the treasury today
The doors are bolted shut
Not even a chink of light

Sometimes I am left in places outside the garden
The one I have been trying to return to for most of my estranged life
I cannot even see the flaming sword - so far away am I now from that place

I know a river runs through it
It has trees either side for the healing of the nations

We all need health - not just of the body but of the mind
It is the mind that needs to find the garden

There was once another garden
Where pain was contemplated among the olive trees
Perhaps that is the garden I must return to ?

Is there light there ?
They say it is a wondrous garden.


Paul.



Comments

  1. Marigold Jam29 January 2018 at 08:44

    I too have enjoyed watching Monty in his paradise gardens and some years ago his predecessor Geoff Hamilton designed and planted some paradise gardens on Gardeners' World again as places to be still and quiet. Your poem is lovely, though sad, and I wish you some moments of contemplation during which you might see that even outsideof that wonderful garden you dream of there is much to wonder at and to enjoy. I noticed a yellow dandelion yesterday blooming alongside the busy main road for instance and wondered at how Nature can provide solace in the most unlikely places if only we take the time to notice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paul Steer29 January 2018 at 08:57

      That's so true - I've just read a poem along those very lines . I think this internal struggle will always be with me until the day I step into the eternal garden.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pity the cabbage white

-
Image
Dear Monty, Having seen you protect your newly planted cabbages from cabbage white butterflies - it made me realise that I haven't seen many this year. Despite warmth yesterday - a brief interlude with blue sky and a light wind there was a dearth of butterflies in the coal tip garden. There were honey bees, bumble bees, wasps, hover flies, a gangly legged wasp, one hedge brown, one speckled wood and a common blue - that is all. Oh and a frog sheltering in the shady hosta and a silent peregrine falcon swooping overhead. What has happened to all the insects ? What has happened to all the aphids this year ? Is it just me that is missing them ? I have seen no ladybirds or ladybird larvae - because there have been so few aphids - was it the birds that have snaffled them ? I worry about the lack of insect numbers. We walked through a wild meadow full of meadow cranesbill and meadowsweet with the purple haze of knapweed in the grasses and yet there were one or two meadow br...
Read more

Letter to Monty Don 48

-
Image
Dear Monty, I know that despite these rambles being addressed to you, they never reach your eyes or heart, but this question is most certainly directed to you : Can nature be ugly ? I am pondering this question sitting in my cupboard of a 'studio' where I am putting the finishing touches to paintings of  British native orchids, pollinators and butterflies for an exhibition next weekend. Now I believe that you understand perfectly well the response you may get when you make statements on GW - including the one about spent buddleja flowers being 'ugly'. I too have always deadheaded my buddleja for the same reason, and as you said to promote new flower spikes. But this ugliness is an intrinsic part of nature - it sets seed to create the next generation, the flowers last but for a few days. Is this ugliness a kind of acknowledgement of the frailty of 'beauty' .... and the cutting off and tidying away a kind of denial ? ( Perhaps I think too much.) I ...
Read more

Monty, where does the road take us ?

-
Image
Monty, I see you have returned to France. Your film reminded me of my visits to Paris as an art student between 1981-83. It is a city that cannot fail to make an impression with its wide open streets, avenues of trees, the river and public gardens. I particularly remember Versailles with its long canal. At that time I was not aware of having a particular interest in gardens, but the gardens at Versailles were astonishing. I saw them in early morning light, when there were not that many people there. I also remember being intrigued by the garden at the Musee Rodin. Strangely for an art student, it was not the sculpture that caught my attention but the garden with pyramid shaped topiary. Perhaps what I was responding to was the sense of order, balance and harmony. It almost feels as though I was meant to visit, and that the encounters I had which were sensually intense, were pre-ordained. There is one incident, which has great significance only to me perhaps, but which was of ...
Read more