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Poem Found Among the Prison Diaries

Jun 27, 04:15 pm

30 August 1995

You say you’re lost
And no place feels like Home?
Right where you are standing
Dig a garden
Any way you can

Depend on it
For everything you get

The sky will tell you
If it’s going to rain.
Your skin will tell you

Watch the lengthening day
Send your mustard greens to shoot
And flower. Substitute adventure
For dismay
And eat the shoots

Push the season. Throw lettuce seeds
On any clear patches in February
In case, crazily…
Dream of summer
In the hungry months
Of potatoes and dried beans

Drink coffee with the old-timers
And let them show you
Which weeds to eat

Fight for your crop
With aphids, flea beetles
Maggots of the cabbage fly
And gophers

Dread the shortened days
The cooling nights
And the tomatoes are still green

Go to bed hungry
Find yourself alive
Next day

Get crazy in the kitchen
Fry patty pans squash with three
Colors of peppers. Heap platters
With snow peas and garlic shoots.


Comments


slpmartin said
June 27, 2010 at 6:16 pm

Thanks for sharing this it was rather interesting to read.

Lani said
July 2, 2010 at 11:32 pm

Are you gardening now? I love the poem.
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About Katherine Power

I didn’t set out to be a terrorist. As a student activist, I moved from protesting the war in Viet Nam to waging guerrilla war to overthrow the government….
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Recent and Upcoming Appearances & Publications
3/12/19 Peace, Justice and Transformation, Parallel Conference to the UN Commission on the Status of Women, 777 United Nations Plaza, NYC
11/13/18 A Journey from Guerrilla to Grandmother, Lifelong Learners: An Independent Collaborative, Temple Shir Tikva, 141 Boston Post Road, Wayland, MA 01778
10/10/18 Provincetown Women’s Week Reading from Doing Time:Papers from Framingham Prison, AMP, 432 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA
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