from 1/4/10

To mimic, to mirror is not a reward in itself--though nothing
to sneeze at either. I've admired the tenacity of the wild grape
climbing the still unsturdy maple saplings behind the work-shed,
not the rambling of the sumac. What I would give for bamboo,
an invasive wall of bamboo growing everywhere and restoring
the silence before time, to which I feel as entitled as my neighbors.
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Well before the two world wars was an interest in bringing two or more disparate sounds together,
Witness Charles Ive's father conducting two bands marching around a single square,
or playing trumpet from the lakeside as the bands circled an empty gazebo.
And stereoopticons brought an artificial depth to the eye.

How I'd rather watch the wild grape thread the maples than the sumac

sprout those flowery cones and stringy pinnates of ruddy however
invasive pepperoncini-colored leaves whose tannin smothers

the lawn surely as the leaves of the maple in the fall.

Don't let the local setting down. Do you need a yard on which to sprawl,

or a garden of geometrically trimmed hedges?