the miserable gardener

“Art demands of us that we do not stand still.”  (Beethoven)

The Pole Garden.

The poles are arranged in the form of a quincunx, flattened on one side. (This side.) As is evident, some of them do lean slightly; this is partly due to the curvature of the earth in this particular location, partly due to the poles being exposed to the full force of winter winds coming off the mountains, and partly due to large, heavy owls sitting on top of them, scanning the garden for snacks.

Cynical garden visitors, who are allowed in the back yard in hope that the dog might nip at their ankles, sometimes suggest that the only reason the poles are here is because they used to be somewhere else and the Head Gardener decided to put them here. Clearly, they don’t know art when they see it.

The inspiration here doubtless originated from an interpretation of a certain passage in a certain chapter in the novel Cosmos, by Witold Gombrowicz, one of the Head Gardener’s favorite writers.

There were plans to add more poles, but, for some mysterious reason, poles such as these, slightly tapered, are difficult if not impossible to find.  Note how, if one pole is left out of the picture, the integrity of the vision is destroyed, and now it just becomes a bunch of poles stuck in the ground for no reason at all.