Jewel of Jerusalem
A curled fist formed of a thousand fingers, each the parched colour of cracked mud.
Most ugly of plants, albeit arch-survivor.
They say a drought could last a century - but just one shower, and you spring back to bud.
Drifting, tumble-weed thing - then so quick to unfurl, fan out flat, a palm of green tips.
So, like no person ever has or shall, you live only when it's simple and good.
The rest - the loves and rapes, heroes and whores, the days and the nights, the winters and springs, this London lounge you are now paused in; human civilisation, and its fall - you bluntly shrug off and ignore. Just when water ends, you die as you should.
Sun and earth, rain that rains, winds that blow: you die, live, die, live among the elements. Silent, pure, unfussy faith: your lesson? Then mad, lurching mankind shall never know.
Most ugly of plants, albeit arch-survivor.
They say a drought could last a century - but just one shower, and you spring back to bud.
Drifting, tumble-weed thing - then so quick to unfurl, fan out flat, a palm of green tips.
So, like no person ever has or shall, you live only when it's simple and good.
The rest - the loves and rapes, heroes and whores, the days and the nights, the winters and springs, this London lounge you are now paused in; human civilisation, and its fall - you bluntly shrug off and ignore. Just when water ends, you die as you should.
Sun and earth, rain that rains, winds that blow: you die, live, die, live among the elements. Silent, pure, unfussy faith: your lesson? Then mad, lurching mankind shall never know.
posted by Tom Chivers at 7:44 PM
21 Comments:
Note.
Our German sofa-surfer brought this plant with her. It is pretty much as I describe it. A brown ball, a bit bigger than a fist.
But then if you give it water, in a day or two it becomes this green, stretching fan. Apparently they can survive for decades without water, safe in their curled-up state.
Anyhow. She calls them 'Jewels of Jerusalem'. But google draws a blank here. Likewise, a search for tumbleweed (maybe it is part of the tumbleweed, I am guessing) yielded nothing useful.
So if anyone knows what the proper name for this strange thing is, &/or more info about it, I'd be dead curious to know...
all the plants that have passed through my hands resemble this. except this has life, life, life written about it, when all i can muster with my ball of (once)green is a stinky mass of rot.
i'll go poke around, see what i can find about this baby.
at wiki, i came across spikemoss. from the article, i read:
Many species of Selaginella are desert plants known as "resurrection plants," because they curl up in a tight, brown or reddish ball during dry times, and uncurl and turn green in the presence of moisture. Other species are tropical forest plants that appear at first glance to be ferns.
is that our jewel?
Spikemoss! Brilliant. I think it's one click further, this one: Rose of Jericho. So Jewel of Jerusalem is probably the misremembered name of that.
I should edit and hyperlink, I guess.
yay. do i win anything?
Ask Karma for the lottery. You never know...
i hope, one day, we'll win the ContinentalCashCow. after you invent it.
Well, I can invent a lottery easy enough.
I just need people to send me money for tickets.
Anyone?
Such sensible living would be the death of me.
I am trying to work out exactly why I am so envious of this strange, ugly thing, and I still don't know Kieran. Still it was 4am, and I figured I'd better post something. Maybe, after all, it's just that I wasn't being very sensible.
Spikemoss. Sounds like something I should keep around, just in case I ever need to prove that I have a, uh, uh, green thumb.
I bet you read a killer bed-time story
well put. :-)
Haven't posted for a wee while I see. That's pretty unforgivable if you ask me. I mean I'm okay, it's the others I'm worried about. They're unstable. They could burst into fits of rage at any moment.
I think it's time for an update. How about you?
where did you go, disillusioned so soon?
* mad * - you really can't fail with this stuff. I mean you can kill it for years, then bring it back to life.
* boudica re bedtime * ah but you pay with the snores during the night.
* ray ray * - thanks.
* last three comments * - well yes I am not sure funny things happen to me with time, like I forget all about it. It just seems to slip past in huge swathes, then suddenly bundle up universes into seconds. If you know what I mean.
boudica, re: bedtime: There had to be a catch, didn't there?
But that's the only one! (Honest . . . )
hi, I noticed you also enjoy including poems in your blogs (which are interesting to read, adds a fresh perspective to things :) ). Do you mind explaining how you insert your poems so they still keep the poem format? I've tried to add a few into some of my posts, but they end up getting added in a 'normal paper' format rather than a center style I'm trying to get
Thank you veterans poem
Thank you veterans for all you have done,
Because of you we know we have won,
Thank you for the love and support,
We know some lives were very short,
Thank you veterans for all you have done,
You will always be our number 1.
Thank you and god bless
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