Letter to a Gardener

“It’s spring, springtime again”

For the last post of the month, I’m keeping it short and sweet.

Below you’ll find a collage, a poem, and a roundup of links to things mentioned throughout the month (and some other discoveries on the theme of Rooting into Self). 

I also want to leave you with the 9-minute song, “Springtime Again” by Sun Ra and his Intergalactic Myth Science Solar Arkestra (this band name is *chef’s kiss* perfect).

• Spotify link // YouTube link 

Released in 1979 as part of the 3-song album, “Sleeping Beauty” - the whole album is fantastic - it’s a song I listen to every spring. It’s been on repeat for the last week, and seems the most fitting intro to this month’s final collage & poem. 

It’s Spring, Springtime Again | Mixed Media Collage by Colleen Kam Siu | 8.5” x 11.5”

The poem of the week is: “Letter to a Gardener”

Why should a seed be shamed
for refusing to grow
in between stones?
Isn’t the humiliation enough? 
One’s only purpose: denied,
or maybe just dragged out - 
a Saturnine fate
for our little dream-seed,
sent to traverse
deserts of stones
full of snakes and shadows.

(We can’t all be purple-edged lushness
water-heavy cucumbers and 
shamrock carpets of green
every day, every year.)

Sometimes, 
we feed the birds. 
Sometimes,
we keep rolling 
with the winter winds
into caverns of deep sleep,
another decade about to burst,
waiting for a new spring 
to come.

Link Roundup:

Mentioned in Bukowski’s Bluebird / My Lion: 

• Oliver Burkeman’s “Four Thousand Weeks” (book) & “The Awkwardness Principle” (article)

• Audre Lorde’s “A Litany for Survival” (poem) 

• Bukowski’s “Bluebird” (poem)

Mentioned in Week of the Lies:

• Martha Beck’s: “The Way of Integrity” (book)

Mentioned right now:  

• Steff Calla’s “Since We’re Here” (Substack) ← a writer with a hilarious and insightful voice, whose essays show what it’s like to move past boulders of self-doubt

• Rick Rubin’s “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” (book)  ← recommended to me by everyone, and for good reason. Pure, creative wisdom. “Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can hone in on who they really are and what they really offer.”