GARDEN IN PROGRESS
High above the Pacific coast, below it
The waves' gentle thunder and the rumble of oil tankers
Lies the actor's garden.
Giant eucalyptus trees shade the white house
Dust relics of the former mission.
Nothing else recalls it, save perhaps the Indian
Granite snake's head that lies by the fountain
As if patiently waiting for
A number of civilizations to collapse.
And there was a Mexican sculpture of porous tufa
Set on a block of wood,portraying a child with malicious eyes
Which stood by the brick wall of the toolshed.
Lovely grey seat of Chinese design, facing
The toolshed. As you sit on it talking
You glance over your shoulder at the lemon hedge
With no effort.
The different parts repose or are suspended
In a secret equilibrium, yet never
Withdraw from the entranced gaze, nor does the masterly
_____hand
Of the ever-present gardener allow complete uniformity
To any of the units: thus among the fuchsias
There may be a cactus. The seasons too
Continually order the view: first in one place then in another
The clumps flower and fade. A lifetime
Was too little to think all this up in. But
As the garden grew with the plan
So does the plan with the garden.
The powerful oak trees on the lordly lawn
Are plainly creatures of the imagination. Each year
The lord of the garden takes a sharp saw and
Shapes the branches anew.
Untended beyond the hedge, however, the grass runs riot
Around the vast tangle of wild roses. Zinnias and bright
_____anemones
Hang over the slope. Ferns and scented broom
Shoot up around the chopped firewood.
In the corner under the fir trees
Against the wall you come on the fuchsias. Like immigrants
The lovely bushes stand unmindful of their origin
Amazing themselves with many a daring red
Their fuller blooms surrounding the small indigenous
Strong and delicate undergrowth of dwarf calycanthus.
There was also garden within the garden
Under a Scotch fir, hence in the shade
Ten feet wide and twelve feet long
Which was as big as a park
With some moss and cyclamens
And two camelia bushes.
Nor did the lord of the garden take in only
His own plants and trees but also
The pants and trees of his neighbors; when told this
Smiling he admitted: I steal from all sides.
(But the bad things he hid
With his own plants and trees.)
Scattered around
Stood small bushes, one-night thoughts
Wherever one went, if one looked
One found living projects hidden.
Leading up to the house is a cloister-like alley of hibiscus
Planted so close that the walker
Has to bend them back, thus releasing
The full scent of their blooms.
In the cloister-like alley by the house, close to the lamp
Is planted the Arizona cactus, height of a man, which each
_____year
Blooms for a single night, this year
To the thunder of guns from warships exercising
With white flowers as big as your fist and as delicate
As a Chinese actor.
Alas, the lovely garden, placed high above the coast
Is built on crumbling rock. Landslides
Drag parts of it into the depths without warning. Seemingly
There is not much time left in which to complete it.
b.b. c. 1945
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