Endless Lawn XXXV

Never stops growing, does it? The lawn has been growing even more willfully than usual. The lawn is greater this year, showing me that it was smaller before. “How can something that’s endless be great or small?” I hear you asking. Questions like that reveal the mind of a beginner. Funny though, questions like that might also reveal the mind of a master. The difference is how you react if an answer doesn’t present itself. So how do you react? ‘Cause I’m not giving you an answer, just another poem.

So, like I was saying, the lawn is growing with a will this year. I haven’t written many poems yet. Been so busy working in and around the yard. But there are plenty more mows left this season. Here’s a poem about one way to cut a large yard.

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Square Within a Square

One strategy for mowing a large yard

Is to cut in a square

Beginning around the perimeter 

And making concentric cuts 

Smaller and smaller squares

As you move toward the center 

Now, you shouldn’t cut in a square

If you want those nice, clean stripes

But if you do find yourself cutting in a square 

There will come a time

When you turn the machine

Around another corner

Maybe the twelfth 

Maybe the sixty-twelfth

When the size of the square,

At first magnitudinous,

Appears meaner

And this realization

Made richer

By the mellifluous susurrations

Of the blade mollify

A stress which wants no more fuel

What is the name of the feeling?

The job-well-done feeling

At once contentment

And pride

And weariness spent 

In the process

Following the pattern

Recognizing the stitching

Each step the only step 

And each blade bending 

The rest of the job

Is joy

T. Evans, May 2025