X ( r lw s v x m Q ö X c p C ru t / ogus ™ U W t D r r Feeble light meanders through furrows in the community garden Under a deepening cerulian canopy shadows and plants slowly recede into the warmth of the evening s edges Simmering tranquility is punctuated with the hesitant songs of nights arrival The chitter of the raccoon near the compost bin, the chirr of a bat swooping briefly, the nick of a twig broken, the muting warble of a nighttird nesting Today was clear and hot Plucking upon Ì the mandolin of memory, I try recalling « the last time we danced in the garden to W » ♦ J IM « heat ol Phoebus^ tune Its been^H awhile Summer has burst forth after an interminable, thin and grey arpeggio of drizzle Finally Tonight s garden pulses C with warmth and wildness Civilized activity this gardening But, in l the shifting light and blurring boundaries of a summer 's evening one can see the thinness in the veneer of imposed order Within the garden space our politely planted rows commune with the unfettered abandon m the thickets of the Grove surrounding The line is thin between carefully domesticated straw berries and their rambunctious wild cousins Between them is the common genetic memory of wilderness Outside the strictures of the garden s tidiness, wilderness bursts forth, beckoning in the twilight And, left to their own, our well-mannered plantings will follow that beckoning After a few generations the domestics will revert to a stronger, more self-reliant, coarser, mure adaptable plant Less refined, yes Let a mound of potatoes go for a while They do become less ’pretty" Of course, this can be a scary thing for the Calvinist mind There is a strain of thought running through American intellectual history that equates wilderness with danger, evil and violence, an entity to be conquered, suppressed or brought to domestication This constrictive view is well documented in Roderick Nash s Wilderrie in 1 Am» r Mind Happily, the works of Thoreau, Emerson and Whitman sang articulate and uncompromising odes to the goodness of wilderness experience For me, the most articulate heir to Thoreau s Walden is Gary Snyder's r*-enUy published The Pr • ti< - ! Wild A gardener's toolshed is not complete without a well-thumbed copy of this book These practical and eloquent essays are a tool to understanding gardening and Thoreau s declaration. 'In wildness is the preservation of the world " If you've not read The i ' - th»» W-.: i yet, 1 would recommend taking it along while harvesting wild blackberries Pick a cup of berries, find a sunny respite and dive into the cooling currents of Snyder s writing The first chapter. T h e Etiquette of Freedom", is worth it just for the title itself Freedom is not license and there is protocol in wildness Snyder examines the etymologies of "nature" "wilderness" and "wildness" in this chapter and shows just how misunderstood those concepts are, in contemporary society Sitting her* m the garden I do a goodly amount of weeding and civilizing of the •wilderness tendencies in the pea patch But then, just to be sure, there s always a sacramental, unruly overgrown area All g ard en s should have a wild spot volum e of Gary Snyder If you would like to become a E P . 07}5 (or more B 1 n , • y-.' J ' I - < ',v . - ■ " ' ’ V ? '•/ 7 ''I* J. . 'i C information The garden is located at the east end of Madison Street in the Grove 0 * .*? S 4 Q r. -v * I V jn , ,»•'» ' s (' » r I «4 ? K* * ’- * • * I * ** > "* * 1 i n - ^ 'l -1»^ KA T Obk A . WAMK KX JOt • LOCAL mOCMCl o tix x x n otii • cxMXAL m i « o n mtx » uh • w r • mix MX* MX4C TK** & recycled pnaiucti made fnwi the paper you recycle Ai f t i f t n r • « b » » ihr u tu rt We II help you lauaty vour paper nr<4t baKcl an io n emuunmemal trnuuvuy ¿¿y ai Call ut lue 1 «ataiog buutrhuU. office and pa. ta fin | pnaiucM O» Mop by la n r c o l a n d c u lin a r y K a rtta I v a r tta I p r o d u c t a lo r M r a lln a a a a n d I « « la n c a h e ib a lis t I m o lly s tro m b o lt / ow ner --------- .----------------------------- THE "Salem's Widest Variety of Natural Foods" 2060 M a rk e t Street Nfc • Salem, OR 97301 • .362-5487 M on I n 9am-9pm. Sat 9am-7pm. Sun 1 lam-Opm u V , II YOU DON’ T CLOSE TH E I W P ' NATURAL FOODS C a a v a l D tn in j O verlooking The Treab Aeafood Dinner« Mol M n d w lc fvea Apirlta Hom e Baked D eaerrta august JW3 ‘ -1 nJ HELIOTROPE ta ct • ? jKi'fl. Î j U J u r r t it u n V Re» fuco R iver Aon da y B runch r A c i n c c m r or (9 0 3 ) 9 6 6 B 7 2 J