Gardener — Summary

morning and noon change into green evening I water my bed

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

In just three short lines, a gardener's whole day slips by. Morning and noon turn into "green evening," as if the hours themselves have been absorbed into the plants. The speaker doesn't tell us about the passing time directly. Instead, the day is measured in green, in growing things, which suggests a person so wrapped up in the garden that the sun's movement barely registers.

The last line is the most interesting. The speaker waters "my bed," which could simply mean a flower bed, but the word also makes us think of a place to sleep. The garden and the speaker's own rest seem to blur together, as if tending the plants is a way of settling down for the night. The mood is quiet, patient, and content. Nothing dramatic happens, and that is the point: there is a gentle satisfaction in ordinary work, and a sense that time spent this way is never wasted.

Read also

More by Dave Bonta

All poems
ContemplativeDave Bonta

Plea bargain

I hear half a beat of drum to serve time have half a hope in the meantime praise God
DreamyDave Bonta

Cibola 3

I awake in the dark and shake free of sheets & blankets, of down-filled quilt. The rituals of waking– the long, hot shower, the coffee–give
ContemplativeDave Bonta

In good light

On a maple’s pale bark, a zigzag ladder—old tooth-marks from a wandering snail? Green islands of moss