TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2023 POEM WEEK - DAY 2

This week I’m looking at poems (and, that implies that I’m looking at poems that I like!!)

I think my favorite poet is Robert Frost - so a second poem by Frost today (going with “Two Paths diverged in a Yellow Wood” yesterday).

(The poem is long and the full version is at the bottom:)

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MENDING WALL

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

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Now, I’ve been in New England and there are a lot of stone walls (see the picture).  Some walls are finished - neat and orderly, and some are rough - some bigger rocks and some smaller rocks.  

I’ve walked maybe 300 miles in New England woods where there are abundant rocks to build rock walls (or rock fences).  Somebody at some time moved the rocks to a boundary line and stacked them up.  Frost (in the poem) says the wall between him and his neighbor separates his apple orchard from the neighbor's fir trees.  He isn’t quite sure why there is a fence (wall), but the neighbor says “Good Fences make Good Neighbors”.  (Read the poem and come back)

Their fence doesn’t separate Frost’s cows from the neighbor’s cows.  It is just there - and the neighbor still insists that “Good Fences make Good Neighbors”.

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So, Karen, why do you like this poem?

Well, I think the idea is “boundaries”.  I need some boundaries between myself and my neighbor (and my neighbor needs a boundary between him and me).  I need boundaries with non-neighbors (but in some regards we all are neighbors).  

We (the United States) have a boundary between US and Canada, and another between US and Mexico (that one is more controversial). 

What if my neighbor didn’t have boundaries with me?  Let’s say the neighbor is fixing lunch and just wanders into my house and checks out my refrigerator and takes some salad, meat, beverage, and other stuff to make her lunch?  

My door might always be unlocked and Bonnie (my neighbor) has free range to come over and get anything she needs - no boundaries.  

Lunch might be one thing - but maybe Bonnie needs some money, so comes walking into my apartment (without knocking) and checks my purse for money or a credit card.  Bonnie no longer has a car or drives, but maybe Bonnie wants to go to a movie, so she walks into my place, grabs my car keys, and some money, and goes to the theater. Maybe she drives around a while and returns my car with the gas gauge on empty.  

So, maybe if I say “Bonnie, if you need something just ask” - sets up a boundary.  My door is shut and she will need to knock and I’ll need to open it for her.  (Maybe my door is even locked).  Maybe she can ask “Gee, Karen, I’m making a dessert and I need about ½ cup of flour - can I borrow some?”, or maybe “Karen, my social security check comes tomorrow, but I have to pay my rent today, can I borrow $50 until tomorrow?” 

Yes, good fences make good neighbors.  We both have an understanding of what is reasonable and fair.

Frost talks of walking the wall line/fence line with his neighbor.  I can picture him on his side and his neighbor on this side of the fence.  They find a spot where a hunter knocked off a few rocks and they put them back on top.  Maybe a deer jumped the fence and kicked off a rock or two.  Maybe the winter snow and wind toppled a few rocks. They walk together as neighbors and fix the fence.  

Yes, Good fences make Good Neighbors.  

I probably have such a boundary with my children (maybe much more relaxed than the neighbor’s boundary).  Maybe I have such a boundary with my students or friends.  

Yes, Good fences make Good Neighbors.  

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, FEBRUARY 7, 2023

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MENDING WALL

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’