Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above... a meditation on Nature That is Beyond Nature and the life well-spent
This morning I randomly clicked onto a blog run by a young woman in Sacramento, about her friends and family, the activities of her church group, her resolutions for the next year (learn more about specific parts of the Bible, learn to do welding - !! - , lose another 30 lbs on top of the 65 she's already lost) etc. The church group went on a camping trip in some amazing place like in a Western movie, and she took photos of incredible craggy reaches, all rose-pink and gold in the evening light, and lakes sparkling in tall pine forests, with fresh-faced Bible students jumping into them in their innocent bright-coloured bikinis... Crocodiles (as it were) of sweet-faced couples in sensible khaki shorts, and polo shirts with loose sleeves, and socks with their hiking boots, tramping through the unsullied mountain air, talking no doubt about the teachings of St Paul, or maybe the dangers of forest fire.
Well - suffice to say I went for a lunchtime walk today through Mayfair. I confess I do recall thinking as I walked along, "If I walk energetically enough I might get some colour/get a waist/improve my skin tone," and things like that, but I'm pretty sure our Sacramento friends weren't thinking that as they hiked down the gullies singing camping songs. And when I reached Lowndes Square I saw THE tallest trees I've EVER seen. Just good old London plane trees, dripping gunk on all the cars parked below - on Jaguar and Ford hatchback alike - but towering over the impressively tall buildings behind Harvey Nichols they're like primordial trees that should have dinosaurs roaming through them, biting off their tops. (The picture above doesn't do them justice, it only shows the saplings.) And so outrageously green. It was an almost other-worldly experience - though not as other-worldly as gigantic stalagmites instead of roads - and I hadn't had so much as an espresso.
When I reached the SALE-signed windows of Harvey Nicks I turned right around, by the way. And did my primordial dinner-shopping in Waitrose in Belgrave Square. (Oh yes! It's all right for some!)
As the sage himself wrote:
Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above,
Don't fence me in.
Let me ride through the wide open country that I love,
Don't fence me in.
Let me be by myself in the evenin' breeze,
And listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees,
Send me off forever but I ask you please,
Don't fence me in.
My only comfort is that he probably wrote all that with a martini to hand. And I think of the closer-to-home sage Tim Turnbull, whose first poetry collection (Stranded in Sub-Atomica, Donut Press, 2005) is currently shortlisted for Best First Collection in this year's Forward Prize. In his poem "New Romantic" he writes, paraphrasing London's own sage, Oscar Wilde:
... and it strikes me that we're all in the gutter
but some of us are gazing at the shops.
5 comments:
I love London because there are still moments of wildness in the midst of all that gray. New York is wonderful, but I would miss our parks (from Richmond down to my scrubby local green).
You know that Waitrose is a famous pick-up joint, when my mother started going there rather than our local Sainsbury's in Wandsworth I was convinced for ages that she was having some secret affair with a man she had met over the organic pate.
The girl in Sacramento may have the luxury of the mountain air, but her head is probably being filled with intelligent design, I'd rather have the pollution!
Eloise
Thanks for the tip, Eloise - it's organic pate fpor me from now on!
Eloise--
Intelligent design in California? At least not in the public schools, last I heard. That said, there is nothing quite so horrifying as an American private school run by fundamentalists. (My sister took driver's ed at one in Norman and literally had nothing that fit their dress code--and my sister isn't one for gratuitous displays of flesh.)
Oh, we've got parks in New York City, too. There's a big one a bit south of me. You may have heard of it...
Quincy
Yeah, but she is on a bible trip...you never know with those damned americans *g*.
You may have Central Park, but that is it and if you don't live nearby you are buggered. In London there are little patches of green everywhere. They may not be grand landscaped parks with zoos, but they are there.
Eloise
Regents Park has a zoo :)
Springfiled Park, near me, has a Marina, a river, 2 cafes, a playground, lots of atmospheric slopes, a view over London, access onto Hackney Marshes, and fishing. Not that one fishes, of course.
We also have a little scrubby green, Stoke Newington Common. The council is almost done putting up a playground there,
much needed - but, with the only access to it being across two roads, have they put in a zebra crossing on even ONE side? Nooooo...
Quincy, never fear, soon you will be in Dublin where the squares and gardens are a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
And yes, NYC has great parks too. Lots of 'em.
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