Harvest Time by Joan LeBoeuf
"Nature is, above all, profligate. Don't believe them when they tell you how economical and thrifty nature is, whose leaves return to the soil. Wouldn't it be cheaper to leave them on the tree in the first place?" - Annie Dillard
Abundance and abandon characterize the natural order; generosity breeds generosity. The below poem by Mary Pratt which I came upon earlier this week, brought to mind Annie Dillard's quote. The contrast between profligate nature that Dillard describes and Demeter (a Greek Goddess of the harvest) is surprising. After all, to achieve an abundant harvest, one cannot hoard the seed, or be loath to bury it in the ground. In a similar way, we need to embrace the cycles of death and life in our own growth. We can hold on to things too long, afraid that if we give them back to the ground we will never see them again. in fact, the opposite is true. Giving up is the only way to abundance. If we don't let go, we will find ourselves starving as the autumn comes.
Hecate Explaining Demeter
Mary F C Pratt
She never liked the letting go:
the seeds she sowed,
the Spring.
She turned aside
the river’s flow,
she hated everything
that died.
She never learned
to drop a single stone.
And so she walks the autumn
fields unhappy,
all alone.
Notes: Joan LeBeouf's artwork was found here
Mary Pratt's poetry can be found on her website here.
