GARDENING.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 1600, 31 May 1924, Page 16 (Supplement)

GARDENING.

Clove pinks, carrots, poems, babies, dreams, Growing things that's all there is to this Affair of living, digging round the roots . Of life to form its blooming or we miss Its fullest fragrance. When we're young we make A jungle garden where our blown desires Curtain the stars and all the tangled paths Arc clustered with our dreams. But mid-life tires Of purple-pctalled ecsfacy. We clip And prune and straighten, cut new paths and hedge Them in with nice precision, build 'a wall And lock the gates before our children wedge Their lingers through to lift the latch' and play Outside among the wild flowers and the weeds And poison ivy. When we're old v.s dig The deep earth with our lingers, oury seeds Of lily bulbs or grass or parsnips, feel The brown loam moulder touching with our hands Life's sources. But when planting's over and The greedy, kind, unhurried earth demands Our bodies' dust to feed new roots, I know , I shall not be unhappy in that dim Hereafter, if the Lord will let me farm Some corner of the universe with Him. —Anice Page Cooper.