The Garden
November 5, 2020This week, I was Commissioned to write for Future Venture Foundation’s event ‘Beyond Future’ to write a poem in response to answers written by Artists, Creative leaders, Funders and organisations. The question was ’What is the key ingredient for funding the arts and wider creativity well?’. I have paired my work with some images I took at Fletcher Moss and in Alderly Edge during Manchester’s COVID tier 3 measures.
The Garden
Funding -
a heavy footed toddler
blundering proudly.
a child with no manners
making up words,
turning out empty pockets
Treading on bulbs and
pulling up plants.
repotting, re-plotting.
asking - what powers live underneath the cold soil?
who grows in the shadowy edges?
Artists.
drowning in watery language
living probationally.
waiting for autumn’s harvest
planting
disorderly daffodils
to be nursed by spring rain.
Artists.
Roots gripping the ground like curled toes.
Whilst some are making the margins wider
moving barrows to dredge up fermenting fear.
Unpruned bushes with flailing limbs
stretch generously into other plots.
Artists.
no choice to have but to be
unequivocally, eternally
grateful
bowing at the feet of the trampling child
who knows
the graceful, tasteful measurable
art
must look and speak the part.
to compliment the surrounding foliage.
The Garden needs chaos
speckled with fault.
needs rowdy hydrangeas,
to crawl up the brickwork
needs friction that lights up the world
needs evergreen spirit.
and a patio where every artist is dancing,
and grass that’s as well-kept as it is enjoyed
....
Ruby-Ann Patterson
@iamrubyann
www.ruby-ann.com