GBMD: Atlas

There is a kind of love called maintenance

Which stores the WD40 and knows when to use it

Which checks the insurance, and doesn’t forget

The milkman; which remembers to plant bulbs;

Which answers letters; which knows the way

The money goes; which deals with dentists

And Road Fund Tax and meeting trains,

And postcards to the lonely; which upholds

The permanently rickety elaborate

Structures of living, which is Atlas.

And maintenance is the sensible side of love,

Which knows what time and weather are doing

To my brickwork; insulates my faulty wiring;

Laughs at my dry rotten jokes; remembers

My need for gloss and grouting; which keeps

My suspect edifice upright in air,

As Atlas did the sky.

Following the talk we went to recently, Threadspider and I were keen to renew our acquaintance with The Courts. More on our visit later. At the entrance I found a list of poems called Aspects of Love with suggested garden locations for each of them. I was quite taken by this idea, particularly as I didn't know many of the poems on the list.

I've had a very happy hour googling poems both old and new. When I read the above poem by UA Fanthorpe, I knew it had to be my Muse Day for March because it sums up my relationship with NAH to a T. On our first date he repaired my dodgy plumbing (despite my proudly independent female protests) and on our wedding day he fixed my nan's central heating. As I write this he's sorting out his aunt's defunct vacuum cleaner following our visit to her in Poole last Wednesday.

It's our 26th wedding anniversary in a few days time... :D

Garden Bloggers Muse Day is hosted by Carolyn Choi at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago.