Your Heathcote Poem
Your poem took more nails than you expected.
Trips to the barn, the plywood wheelbarrow,
the Plexiglas, the greenhouse blueprint,
the revisions. Constructive criticism.
And the budget, and the dump runs,
and the workshop registration…
Your poem took all season.
Two hours every morning
to charm the buds from their beds,
to nurture tall pride in the crocus,
muster stout cabbages from
windowsill beginnings.
And the raking, and the plucking,
with an editor’s consultation…
In the kitchen,
couplets and quatrains
would clank and boil
in kettle and colander
as your conductor’s spoon
traced the seismograph
of your inventor’s abandon.
And the shopping, and the canning,
and the food co-op printout…
So when my printed pages with
pampered phrases come sailing onto
bulletin boards like paper airplanes,
not like your masterpieces–
pounding out, digging up, steaming tender
the touchable specter of Justice–
the roof patched…
the bill paid…
no, my snowflake cutouts garner
only your strange patience,
the tolerance of gardeners.
—-Wren Tuatha
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Broom Zen
This morning I’m spending time with my sheltie, Echo, who is departing this world today. Here is another poem of saying goodbye, inspired by a dear friend at Heathcote:
Charles’ mother is dying.
He has planed
800 miles.
Now he sweeps
Her kitchen.
Back home this is his
After-dinner chore.
He sweeps the hall,
2 seconds per stroke
By the mantle clock.
“Get the stairs while
You’re [...]
Heart of Now Comes to Heathcote in May
May 29-31, 2009, Fri eve – Sun eve
I have had the pleasure of attending the full Heart of Now course and I’ll be an assistant when it is offered at Heathcote. For people searching for tools to understand themselves and communicate better, or for those who just need a safe container in which to sharpen [...]
For Saniya
You are the moment
I reached the gape of the
Grand Canyon. A pile of my
friends tickling and chasing on
summer break, 1975. You’re
the sound of the waterfall in
that state park where even
the birds stop to listen to the
frozen, flowing moment.
When you tell me about
your day and your eyes
gape and grin and I realize I’m
doing that mirror
game from [...]
Lessons from the Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival
So our third year at Baltimore’s Beer Bourbon & BBQ Festival is history. So is our participation, I think. It seems the festival has grown larger and more corporate and louder. It was so loud I couldn’t hear myself leave my body. But when someone on one end of the hall would drop the glass [...]
Not a Promise
This is not a promise,
just a flaky muse:
What if I gave you peaches, cut to the pit just
at the moment of sugaring? What if
you shivered when the juice tracked your chin,
amused to be sticky again?
What if a moment were enough?
I can’t say, but what if I showed up with
wildflowers and you’d just been pondering that
empty [...]
Community Work Action: Weeklong Experience in Community Building
May 17-24, 2009
Hours: Sun 6pm – Sun 12pm
The Community Work Action is an opportunity to experience building community through working, playing, and learning together. You will work with members of Heathote on community projects for 6 hours a day, while spending time each day engaged in community-building activities. These will include Zegg-style Forum, as well [...]
Maybe a Metronome
The work is done, anyway.
You dragged me out of my cave, just by your scent,
and the you I attached to it.
And so I lost weight,
remembered I had hair and styled it.
I bought clothes in case you might
notice. You might have.
I studied your movements, as if you were a
constellation I would join in the velvet blanket, [...]
Permaculture Design Course Now Available on Weekends!
This series of workshops covers the whole Permaculture design course curriculum. Those who attend all 12 days and complete home study assignments, advising sessions, and a design project will earn the Permaculture design apprentice certificate. Students who are not taking the entire course may attend selected individual days or weekends. The dates and topics are:
April [...]
Beer Bourbon & BBQ Festival; & Heathcote is SoL!
Heathcote Earthings is appearing at Baltimore’s Beer, Bourbon & BBQ Festival, this Saturday, April 4th, from noon till 6 pm. We have great fun at this event, geared toward local microbreweries.
For those who enjoy drinking these artfully brewed beverages, and supporting local brewers, This is your event. This year’s show features
So I can hear my [...]
