Hoeing

HOEING
by John Updike from Telephone Poles and Other Poems (Alfred A. Knopf)

I sometimes fear the younger generation will be deprived
   of the pleasures of hoeing;
   there is no knowing
how many souls have been formed by this simple exercise.

The dry earth like a great scab breaks, revealing
   moist-dark loam—
   the pea-root's home,
a fertile wound perpetually healing.

How neatly the green weeds go under!
   The blade chops the earth new.
   Ignorant the wise boy who
has never rendered thus the world fecunder.


Interesting.  As I was posting I noticed that this poem which I came across in my copy of Garrison Keillor's collection, Good Poems, has a different last line than the version on the Writer's Almanac website.  The last line in the book reads, "Ignorant the wise boy who/has never performed this simple, stupid, and useful wonder." 

I'm not sure which version Updike preferred, but I like the "simple, stupid, and useful wonder."  Not only does it capture the rhythm and simplicity of hoeing, it seems to focus the poem more on the action than the outcome.

 It reminds me of meditation, which is in its own way a simple, stupid, useful wonder.  There are those who focus on the desire outcome, the fecundity of the practice be it inner peace, stress reduction, divine union, bliss, or what have you.  Then there are those who simply show up and perform the simple exercise, over and over again, letting go of any expectations. 

Most of us, like myself, are probably fall somewhere in between.  I want to just keep hoeing but I find myself pausing to imagine what the garden will look like once the work is done.  And there's the rub, because as any good gardener will tell you, the work is never done.


What simple wonder has helped form your soul?