{"id":4004,"date":"2017-11-04T16:09:51","date_gmt":"2017-11-04T23:09:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alteritas.net\/GXL\/?p=4004"},"modified":"2017-11-04T16:14:34","modified_gmt":"2017-11-04T23:14:34","slug":"stoic-garden-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alteritas.net\/GXL\/?p=4004","title":{"rendered":"Stoic Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Two of our agave have begun to spike. These succulents reproduce only after have stored sufficient sugars to blossom, after which they die, examples of semelparity, once in a lifetime reproduction, along with male black widows, whose copulatory suicide tends to ensue the species goes on, or the male praying mantis. Here it is the whole plant which expires.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I thought it would take much longer, but these agave were transplanted from a neighbor’s yard and obviously feel themselves ready to go.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

They are daily reminders to me of one of my more spacey recent poems, Stoic Garden, which I append here for your confusion and, I hope, delight.<\/em><\/p>\n

No tree says\u00a0flowering is better
\nthan bearing fruit, just lovers, who embrace
\nthe faith we belong to homo sapiens,
\nthat nostalgic species, the one which takes
\nthe egotism of dying for its own,
\nlonging for perfect flowers and fruit.
\nLike hummingbirds, themselves deciduous
\nleaves which perish if trapped in airlessness,
\nthey flit from one lush shrub to another,
\nsucking at salvia and drooping fushia,
\ndrones darting off to persist, if at all,
\nin retinal afterglow, green\u00a0for red,
\nabsence for the flutter of\u00a0a wing,
\na heartbeat for a spasm.<\/p>\n

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<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two of our agave have begun to spike. These succulents reproduce only after have stored sufficient sugars to blossom, after which they die, examples of semelparity, once in a lifetime reproduction, along with male black widows, whose copulatory suicide tends to ensue the species goes on, or the male praying mantis. Here it is the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Stoic Garden”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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