permaculture

[Joseph Wright <josephonboard@yahoo.com>]

Compost is proof that there is life after death.



--- On Thu, 2/3/11, Lawrence F. London, Jr. <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net> wrote:

> From: Lawrence F. London, Jr. <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
> Subject: [permaculture] Walt Whitman on Compost
> To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>, "Market Farming" 
> <marketfarming@lists.ibiblio.org>, soilecology@lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Thursday, February 3, 2011, 7:31 PM
> Behold this compost! Behold it well!
> 
>        Perhaps every mite has once
> form'd part of a sick person---
>        yet behold!
> 
>        The grass of spring covers
> the prairies,
>        The bean bursts noiselessly
> through the mould in the garden,
>        The delicate spear of the
> onion pierces upward,
>        The apple-buds cluster
> together on the apple-branches,
>        The resurrection of the
> wheat appears with pale visage out of
>        its graves.
> 
>        What chemistry!
>        That the winds are not
> really infectious.
>        That all is clean forever
> and forever,
> 
>        That the cool drink from
> the well tastes so good,
>        That blackberries are so
> flavorous and juicy.
> 
>        That the fruits of the
> apple-orchard and the orange-orchard,
>        that melons, grapes,
> peaches, plums, will none of them poison me,
>        That when I recline on the
> grass I do not catch any disease.
> 
>        Now I am terrified at the
> Earth, it is that calm and patient,
>        It grows such sweet things
> out of such corruptions,
>        It turns harmless and
> stainless on its axis,
>        with such endless
> succession of diseased corpses,
>        It distills such exquisite
> winds out of such infused fetor,
>        It gives such divine
> materials to men, and accepts such
>        leavings from them at
> last.
> 
>        "/This Compost/," Walt
> Whitman [edited]
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