The prompt for this piece was, “To start, find a text (e.g. a novel) or series of texts (e.g., novel, poem, article) and pull out words, phrases, sentences that stick out to you. Play around with the words. Rearrange them until a thought or theme jumps out at you. Continue until you’ve created a cohesive text.” I took pages from Wood and Garden Notes and thoughts, practical and critical, of a working amateur by Gertrude Jekyll and highlighted them into a “traditional” found poem, without re-arranging the words.

the handsome group,
singular beauty and refinement
through the hollows
remains running,
three or four together
side by side.
when one
became too worn
another was by its side.
planted in the old ways,
waving rivers of bloom
accidents of cloud and sunshine.
much better
where they are planted
in haphazard sprinklings.