recipe
a garden somewhat tended but not thoroughly mastered or understood.
— Jon Schueler
to garden,
work out of memory,
taste dirt if you've not before,
test ideas,
tender drive.
history and prehistory will out.
best yesterday.
too little room accept
but location location
location know.
with passersby connect.
windborne transgression, miscegenation
of view color kind all these receive
within reason.
watch for rime calling there to here,
rust to rust,
plant to passing appurtenance,
need to accident.
welcome drought.
let comeuppance come,
ambitions bend,
soil show.
oversee, regulate.
to hectic desire yield, at times,
knowing later rights all, or
most.
think syntax, tropes, measure.
let what only you know your logic root.
the best garden books don’t require pictures.
to garden has no object.
—
24 august 99 (pre-code days)
recently dusted off, hung amongst other didacticisms.
- The Schueler passage is from his reflections (dated 28 June 1972) on painters/painting in the NYC ’50s, and here specifically, earlier work of Ray Parker (1922-1990 *) —
“Previously, there had been a struggle and poetry in his work, springlike color with the aliveness of a garden somewhat tended but not thoroughly mastered or understood.”
Jon Schueler, The Sound of Sleat : A Painter's Life (Magda Salvesen and Diane Cousineau, eds., 1999) : 237
borrowable at archive.org : link - Jon Schueler (1916-92) : link
16 February 2016 / biblio notes revised 20240217