Serenity in the Garden

Garden Gnome, anyone? A few years ago, the Royal Horticultural Society in the UK declared that the banned garden gnome was now allowed to be part of the  Chelsea Flower Show. Tackiness be damned! Garden gnomes for all!   Garden gnomes, those funny little white-bearded  creatures,  are associated in England with the landscapes of the not-so-rich and the unfamous.   According to English gardening maven, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen,  “Gnomes are very symbolic in English gardens as an anti-class statement." Born to be Wild Gnome Anti-class? anti- posh?  These happy little garden sprites (or small and creepy men, depending on your point of view) are reminders that we are all free to fashion our gardens, our little bits of heaven, in our own way.   I remember, growing up in Brooklyn, walking by many a 'bathtub Mary' in the chainlink bordered front yards of those lucky enough to have a front yard.   They would take a cast iron bathtub  (tossed out in favor of new

 O sweet spontaneous by: e.e. cummings (1894-1962)  O sweet spontaneous earth how often have the doting   fingers of prurient philosophers pinched and poked thee ,   has the naughty thumb of science prodded thy   beauty, how often have religions taken thee upon their scraggy knees squeezing and buffeting thee that thou mightest conceive gods (but true   to the incomparable couch of death thy rhythmic lover thou answerest   them only with   spring)