With permission and great honor I share these poems by Marilee Pallant of Brentwood, Tennessee, friend of Barbara Brewer, owner of Harmony Farm.
“Would You Prefer I Whispered”
“As you work there in the fields planting lavender
Or you stand by the client after you have finished a massage
And look out over the fields to the river
Would you prefer I whispered softly
“About connections and simply pointed the way
Toward the common ground than to outline
The wonder of your days – that you have come to this
Beautiful moment after touch, after closeness
“To both body and earth. For my part
If I have a choice I would say that you
Are a natural part of a whole –
That no words could speak
“Of your gifts briefly –
The same way no words come close
To capturing the sun in the morning
Or the moon reflected in the lake at night.
“Softly then we dance – we sit by the trees
Or walk down to the labyrinth –
The wonder is the gift of connectedness,
Being witness to grasses, bodies, flowers and love.”
“Hands that Nurture, Harvest – Flower”
“We cannot separate our hands from the Earth
Nor from the Body – All inextricably One –
I know from experience the way hands plant,
hands tend, hands offer: such an array of hands
“such lined veins that run like rivers through hands.
It makes no difference if your hands provide for the Earth
Or they provide for the body – both made of the same
Sacred stuff, the cells, the water, the minerals, miracles:
“Organic wholeness often broken, now restored.
If you come to the Planet and have heard a Call to Farm,
If you come with a Call to Touch and restore, come
To Harvest laughter, lavender, surrender,an oasis,
“Even words on the page, what a joy then to wake
And be about the needs of the day. I’ve heard trees
Whisper in the winds, grateful for rains and heard
The same from people who have been well tended.
“Has it ever occurred to you that you have been called
To a place to tend not because you wanted to be in that realm
But because the land wanted you there – and the same
For the people you meet – that their bodies hungered
“Like the earth needing rains – and even more
That you serve your own Body and Soul
When your hands tend – reciprocal parts of a Whole.
“Like Whitman knowing the leaves of grass
I have witnessed this kind of Love
And kneeled to wonder, flowering
With gratitude.”
1080 Labyrinth 