"Another Look at the Garden" (Landis Everson)

April 13, 2008

  [photo by J. Star]

"Another Look at the Garden"

The window has glass in it
the garden has not.
There’s a path between grass
but the grass is not a path.
Fairies are not paying attention
at what you see outside which is
not the inside fo the inside
is invented
but the outside was.

If the world is not a dream
is a dream not the world?
Are you looking at a map to find where you are?
The fairies are sitting over there by Asia
inside and out, in every bedroom
and haystack. They are part of nature now
the way love has become fabric.

They were not asked to share our sofas,
but once an idea is needed
it spreads like salt and sugar. They are
riding in our automobiles,
eating our dinners. We say
"I don’t see them!" as they go by like buses.
There’s a fire
burning inside our fireplaces, the inside is,
is burning the outside.
And you stand getting warm like an angel
before a mirror full of furies.

–Landis Everson
from Everything Preserved: Poems 1955-2005

Tags: landis everson, poetry, readings