One Step Backward Taken

Not only sands and gravels

Were once more on their travels,

But gulping muddy gallons

Great boulders off their balance

Bumped heads together dully

And started down the gully.

Whole capes caked off in slices.

I felt my standpoint shaken

In the universal crisis.

But with one step backward taken

I saved myself from going.

A world torn loose went by me.

Then the rain stopped and the blowing,

And the sun came out to dry me.

-Robert Frost

inch by inch and row by row

We brought the salvia greggii 

 Scent of the west 

 the westringia fruiticosa out of the Mediterranean

 the lavandula Goodwin Creek of California's fecund riches

 Young citrus too, a tradition Round these parts

 Dropped them into the clay of dry Ojai

 Gave them sustenance from Lake Casitas

 Made fertile with friend's words and  the laughter of children 

 And some sweat from the old men 

 Bent with their hopes for the same kids

 running over This sanctified dirt

 Where some day

 we will stain our shirts and dresses with pomegranite and peach nectar