Category: Flora & Fauna

The Garden Song

Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow.

All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground.

Inch by inch, row by row, Someone bless the seeds I sow.

Someone warm them from below, ’til the rain comes tumbling down.

 

Pulling weeds and picking stones, man is made of dreams and bones.

Feel the need to grow my own ’cause the time is close at hand.

Grain for grain, sun and rain, find my way in nature’s chain,

to my body and my brain to the music from the land.

 

Plant your rows straight and long, thicker than with prayer and song.

Mother Earth will make you strong if you give her love and care.

Old crow watching hungrily, from his perch in yonder tree.

In my garden I’m as free as that feathered thief up there.

 

Inch by inch, row by row, gonna make this garden grow.

All it takes is a rake and a hoe and a piece of fertile ground.

Inch by inch, row by row, Someone bless the seeds I sow.

Someone warm them from below, ’til the rain comes tumbling down.

Written by Pete Seeger

 

The first time I heard this song, it was performed by John Denver on the Muppet Show. Here is a link to an old friend of the Earth.

At Winter’s End ~ Redwing Blackbirds Return

The beast of winter eased her need and retreated a day enough to let in a thaw. While airing blankets and filling suet cages, I thought I heard the cackle of red-wing blackbird. Everything I know became you. Hail, the first pilgrim to return to this humble garden.

“You were only waiting for this moment to arrive.”

Hope started to rise, but along the walk at Coys Brook, there was only ice and a stiff wind. If only Gluscabe[ii] could forgive us our trespasses. How I miss his starlight. He would tame winter. But, he is long gone to the North East Kingdom of the Abenaqui forever entombed. It is hopeless.

The March winds are sure to rise now and chase the Northern witch back to her lair. She is spun closer and closer to the ebb. I will watch the birds and pray for the gold plumage of the wee finch. Red-Wing Blackbird. Surely you are most welcome here.

[i] “Black Bird” by Lennon and McCartney

[ii] Gluscabe is a Native American folk hero of the Abenaqui Nation. His legend is known and shared among tribes in the North East. He is most associated with Grandmother Woodchuck and part of the tribal creation myth. A Google search of James Bruchac is recommended.