August 04, 2004
Too soon, the beautiful lives weve trembled over
with sprays of pesticide,
friendly stakes,
and watering cans at sunset,
give in,
leaving us helpless.
The weeds,
the unfavoured ones,
stare at us hungrily,
and since it is hard to live
empty of love,
we try to smile.
we learn to forgive them.
by Carol Rumens, from Selected Poems © Chatto And Windus, 1987.
This is how gardening is in Hawaii. Its not about what you want to grow, its about what you dont want growing and how do you get rid of it. Its a never ending job and not for the faint of heart. But like the poem I have learned to forgive the weeds...they are strangers to the Aina too, and as we struggle to get along, me with the Round up, them with their tenatiousness, we live in a restless truce. It is the Hawaiian way.