O, this world, with its stifling restrictions! Uninterested in a mastery of it as I am, I must needs run from it...
...to Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens, in South Yarra. At its southern corner, where I entered, this young Kauri was waving to the world,
as was this young Macadamia, from Queensland, its new growth sure, if gingerly sure.
When I get away, on the occasions I have, it is to get to where naturalness occurs. A giant of a paperbark, above, sprawls out. I have run to where I feel part of things -
- or have caught a tram from the city centre, no real distance away. Who'd have guessed magpies would be as I am, making my way?
These gardens are a sanctuary. I don't want to know about great ambitions, for now. I want to watch much simpler ambitions play out...
It's spring, downunder, and all the new life is burgeoning...
...bursting as it does, out of the ground. The days of my life wash out of me and I am become human.
Helmholtzia glaberrima, 'Stream Lily', first described by the famous Joseph Hooker in 1873, but no doubt growing blithely for countless thousands of years without his nomenclature. It hails from the McPherson Range, strutting the states of Queensland and New South Wales. Its innocent blush speaks of a native innocence.
Above, this jungle of natives betwixt sundry sproutings reminds me I'm home, everywhere I go, though I have run away...
...to be amongst the flowers and the limbs, the greenness, the air, the canopy, the sweetness, the suddenness.
And to be near giants, such as this Kauri, reaching to heaven, the direction of all life...
...whether it is with redness spilling out, as it is for this Cordyline,
or just with a whole lot of shaggy newness, as it is for this Grass Tree ( Xanthorrhoea sp. ).
I have come here to be renewed. The Gymea Lily, ebullient, robust, burning with life, reminds me to go on, in my search amongst the profane...
to find for myself a sacred pattern of life, belonging, reaching, pertinent, otherworldly, MOVING.
Hello Faisal:
ReplyDeleteIt is surely in watching "simpler ambitions play out" that we find ourselves, reminding us, by the way but not entirely off subject, of the e.e. cummings' poem 'maggie and milly and molly and may'.
Your images of new life stirring in the Southern Hemisphere as it dies away here are a lesson in the never ending pattern of existence which is our hope for now and all time.
Hello Jane and Lance,
ReplyDeletee.e. cummings has been an influence on me.
His poetry was something I encountered at school, and I read then alot of him, as I did of William Carlos Williams.
The influence of his poetry has shown me that it's allowable to write free-form, that it's helpful to de-stress ( reduce, alleviate, split open ) language.
In the southern hemisphere we're "waking up", after many months of "sleeping".
I'm sure you won't be frosted over in Hungary, at least internally.
Thankyou, my friends, for taking the care to respond, when I know your lives are so very engaged.
XXX The Runaway, Faisal.
Faisal, how beautiful to see Spring with its energy and freshness while we slowly go to sleep. Gardens have always felt like sanctuaries to me, sacred spaces, places to meditate and listen. Lovely poetic post.
ReplyDeletePaul, I only know we have to involve ourselves in worlds that are a trial, that test us relentlessly. Getting out into the open, in the natural world, reminds me of myself - that I'm not complicated ( well, OK, not too much ), that I have a right to be as I am, that yes, alot of what goes on in our constructed world is rubbish. I believe in "dream time", in "nothing" time. I largely find nature friendly, despite the odd hazardous insect or reptile, or storm or drought. Thankyou. May your own gardening bring you peace.
DeleteDear Faisal,
ReplyDeleteI knew that you would such a person to haunt the Royal Botanic Gardens. What a delight it is. Many, many moons ago, when my hair was much darker than it is now, I used to work in an office situated in St Kilda Road, almost opposite the stairs that climb up to the Shrine.
This meant that many were the lunchtimes I could spend wandering, observing and (almost) sublimating within that green sanctuary, far away from the world of commerce, greed, and litigation! Sometimes I had with me a book, sometimes not.
And I never went out without returning with some small treasure, be it an seed pod of some sort, a leaf . . . to be placed upon my desk as a reminder of the green and pleasant world of 'simple ambitions' as I returned sadly to the grey world that encompasses and envelopes the grandiose ones...
Kirk
Dear Kirk,
Deletethough I live a frugal life, I'm glad I don't belong to an office tower.
My last four years of school were at Melbourne Grammar. In sixth form, we were allowed to amble over to the gardens at lunch-time. That's when I got to begin to know them. I would love that some of the expansiveness that saw them built would come back into the hearts and minds of those who govern us now.
Yes, like you, I always collect a memento, in the shape of a leaf or a seed, as much as to take the dream I've been in into the future, to implant it into my life.
It is looking better all the time, around the Shrine; I hope you get to visit it again soon.
Faisal.
It always stops me to see everything waking up on the other side of the world just as we are preparing for winter's respite. It is a comforting assurance we must continue to move forward. I so enjoyed the walk. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteBonnie, I know exactly what you mean - when I see your spring, just as autumn's coming on here, I think, "Oh, you bastards..." ( forgive the Australianness ). Though I always like autumn - more than any other time of year. It's nice to gather things in then. Spring can be exhausting!
DeleteFaisal, so lovely to see your photos of our wonderful trees and plants. I love to think of people in other countries enjoying them.
ReplyDeleteI accidentally deleted the generous comment you left on my blog! Should have known better than to try to hit publish on my iPhone.
Carol, don't worry about the deletion please, at all!
DeleteIt's so wonderful for us now...I don't know if you know, but we'd had an awful 12-year long drought that only ended 18 months back or so, so to get to be able to out there in nature and seeing it do so well again is a great joy. Especially when there's so much bad news in the world. It is my sustenance, my bread, this nature, and its wellness is mine.
Another beautiful post, Faisal. I still haven't gotten used to the idea that whatever happens here, the opposite is happening for you. I am always touched by your writing but am often at a loss on how to adequately respond in a way that matches your expressiveness.
ReplyDeleteMichael, you're generous. Perhaps my writing gets a bit obtuse and fey!
DeleteNo. I like it and admire it very much. Keep at it!
DeleteMichael, your own blog has something perfect about it, without being vain, that appeals to me very much. It represents some of that strain of what is finest about America.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletedear Faisal, I love the last phrase ... searching for a sacred pattern of life, etc. The Botanical Gardens is a very good place to search for meaning among the trees and plants. I plan to do it myself more often than I actually get round to doing it.
ReplyDeleteIt just makes me feel so good, Catmint.
DeleteIt's great to be able to roam, to pass through areas where there's no-one else, to have no fences, to almost get a bit lost. You'll have to get there this spring. I'm thinking it's time Zara had her first visit.
dear Faisal, definitely it's time Zara had her first visit, you need to broaden her botanical smell experiences! It makes me feel good too, so why don't i do it? Oh, apathy ...
DeleteAbsolutely, dear Catmint, it's only apathy that inhibits us. As soon as you get there you realise you should be going every week, for your own well-being.
DeleteYes, Chief-Inspector Zara would get pretty keen about the smells - plenty to hunt down, in an arresting kind of way.
It is such joy to see nature weaking up there, while here it's falling deeer and deeper to a long winter... It's wonderful wonderful world! I wish you to find what you are looking for :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Demie. I'd love to experience a northern winter, with snow. Soon it will get quite hot, flies everywhere, lawns burnt yellow. Yes, is is a wonderful world.
Delete