Refusing Heaven

Happily Planting the Beans too Early
Jack Gilbert

I waited until the sun was going down
to plant the bean seedlings. I was
beginning on the peas when the phone rang.

It was a long conversation about what
living this way in the woods might
be doing to me. It was dark by the time
I finished. Made tuna fish sandwiches
and read the second half of a novel.

Found myself out in the April moonlight
putting the rest of the pea shoots into
the soft earth. It was after midnight.
There was a bird calling intermittently
and I could hear the stream down below.

She was probably right about me getting
strange. After all, Basho and Tolstoy
at the end were at least going somewhere.


from Refusing Heaven. © Alfred A. Knopf, 2005