Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

In my day, never was longer.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Second rate reporter says what?

Bad news for Ron DeSantis is great news for America.

This really is a full service blog.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

No one could have predicted…

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Leaves of Grass

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Leaves of Grass

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Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Leaves of Grass

Thanks to our ever-dependable, poetical Ozark Hillbilly:

from Song of Myself:

A child said What is the grass? fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child? I do not know what it is any
more than he.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Leaves of Grass 1

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green
stuff woven.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Leaves of Grass 2

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropt,
Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we may
see and remark, and say Whose?

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Leaves of Grass 3

Or I guess the grass is itself a child, the produced babe of the
vegetation.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Leaves of Grass 4

Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the same, I
receive them the same.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Leaves of Grass 5

And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Leaves of Grass 6

Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them,
It may be you are from old people, or from offspring taken soon
out of their mothers’ laps,
And here you are the mothers’ laps.

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Leaves of Grass 7

***********

What’s going on in your garden (memories / planning / indoor / tropical) gardens, this week?

Reader Interactions

49Comments

  2. 2.

    satby

    What a beautiful photo essay OH! Thanks for getting the morning off to a wonderful start.
    Especially solstice eve. After tomorrow, days will begin to lengthen again. And after noon on Jan. 20, some most of us will be able to breath easier again.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: I’d reply, “Left arm back atcha.” but I don’t want to insult you. (my way of saying, “Hadn’t heard that one before.” :-) )

  22. 22.

    Argiope

    @Raven: Kudzu is fascinating stuff—invasive as hell, yet sort of beautiful with its way of reclaiming territory for nature and greenness. Is it true that no one has come up with a use for it yet? More’s the pity since it’s clearly renewable. I’d enjoy those pics now that I no longer live among it.

  24. 24.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    OT I know but maybe folks need it. Tips for spending a great Christmas alone:

    If you are suddenly facing Christmas alone, I have tips. I LOVE Christmas alone so get on board.Food: What would you ideally like to eat if no-one could limit you or judge you? Nothing but pigs in blankets? Just cake? Pot Noodle? Get that! I’m having cheese and crackers.— Mitten d'Amour (@MittenDAmour) December 20, 2020

  25. 25.

    germy

    I’m not a big fan of winter.  My back hurts from shoveling two feet of heavy snow.

    But one thing I like is looking out our window in the morning and seeing fresh tracks on our property.  Paw prints of rabbits and other critters who roamed around our house while we slept (or tossed and turned).

  26. 26.

    raven

    @Argiope: It has some medical uses apparently.

    They brought it in to alleviate erosion when the cotton crop failed and now it’s everywhere. We’ve lived here 20+ years and have learned that mowing is the most effective control. The first year we last it go because we didn’t know what the deal was and it grew almost 50 ft up to the house. Now I mow weekly and it keeps it at bay.

  28. 28.

    dnfree

    We haven’t had snow yet and everything here is shades of tan and brown. I’ve thought of it as quietly beautiful and wished I could take photos to do it justice. Thanks for being able to and sharing!

  29. 29.

    HinTN

    @Argiope:

    Is it true that no one has come up with a use for it yet?

    Although it’s a little stemmy, its nutritional value as hay is second only to alfalfa.

    @raven: They’ve got these herds of goats in Chattanooga that they unleash on hillsides too steep to mow.

    Ozark – Thanks for the really intimate pictures and the bit of Whitman. A great way to start the morning.

  32. 32.

    zhena gogolia

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Now that my husband and I go for walks every day past the same swampy spot, we are always noticing new things among the weeds and wildflowers, how they change every day, how beautiful they are.

    Thanks, Ozark!

  33. 33.

    debbie

    I roll my eyes at the variety in the cereal aisle, but I can’t get enough of the variety in nature. It really is an amazing thing.

  35. 35.

    oldgold

    The mix of photos and Whitman is very well done.

    As a boy I had very little use for poetry. Then, in the eighth grade as a consequence of classroom misbehavior, I was forced to read, memorize and recite Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!”  In the course of doing so, I started to understand the beauty and power of well considered words.

  36. 36.

    raven

    @HinTN: Yea, we’ve got a couple of the goat businesses here. It’s expensive but worth it if you need it. We have a situation where there is a chunk of property that is behind ours and it has a creek running through it so they can’t build anything on it. It has nasty stains water from where the creek overflows and, when it grows over, it’s a  perfect breeding ground for mosquitos.

  39. 39.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Thanx for the compliments all. This ones been on simmer for a while, finally decided to pull it together.

  41. 41.

    Kristine

    Gorgeous photos. I love photographing dried grasses etc when I go walking. All the shades of dry have a beauty all their own.

    Great choice of verse.

    “…the beautiful uncut hair of graves.” Wow.

  46. 46.

    J R in WV

    Great photo essay, Ozark~!~ Thanks for sharing with us.

    A great eye for fall and winter beauty.

    Wonderful combination of photos and Whitman’s posey.

    no surprise here, though!

  47. 47.

    Origuy

    Around here, NoCal, the parks departments bring in goats to keep down the vegetation. Among the things they eat are poison oak and star thistle, which is a nasty spikey thing that kills horses. The last time I was in Point Pinole, a park near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, somebody had let their dogs loose and they had gone after the goats. Someone got the ranger while we tried to herd the stray goats back toward the herd.

  49. 49.

    Dan B

    A garden guru called grasses “The hair of the earth.”

    They’re a plant that reveals the wind to us.  And since many keep their stems and seeds into winter they and golden and silvery sparkle in dark months when the sun is low on the horizon.

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