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Hello dVerse Poets and welcome to Tuesday’s writing feast, also known as Poetics, hosted this week by Kim over at Writing in North Norfolk. This week I hope to inspire you with some music and lyrics.

When I was a teenager, one of my personal anthems was ‘Johnny’s Garden’ from Stephen Stills’ double album Manassas, released in April 1972.  Running through the album was the leitmotif of Stills’ unrequited love for Judy Collins. Johnny’s Garden was a real place where Stills could be ‘safe from the city blues’, where ‘it’s green and it’s quiet’ at Brookfield House in Elstead, Surrey, England, owned first by Spencer Tracy, then Peter Sellers, and later Ringo Starr.  Stills bought the 350 year old Tudor mansion in 1970 and, as he said, ‘had the most wonderful bursts of creativity there’.  

The one constant that withstood the changes in ownership was the gardener, Johnny, who looked after the estate. He was apparently a herbalist who made incredible teas. Stills said he had soul.

It’s also been said that Peter Sellers based the character of Chauncey (the gardener in the Hal Ashby film Being There) on Johnny.

johnnysgarden01

Left to right: Peter Sellers, Johnny and Stephen Stills at Elstead in Surrey. Photo by Henry Diltz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz74uyx7B-E

Johnny’s Garden (Stephen Stills/Manassas)

There’s a place I can get to
Where I’m safe from the city blues
And it’s green and it’s quiet
Only trouble was, I had to buy it

And I’ll do anything I’ve got to do
Cut my hair and shine my shoes
And keep on singin’ the blues
If I can stay here in Johnny’s garden

As the swift bird flies over the grasses
Dipping now and then to take his breakfast
Thus I come and go and I travel
And I can watch that bird and unravel

And I’ll do anything I’ve got to do
Cut my hair and shine my shoes
And keep on singin’ the blues
If I can stay here in Johnny’s garden

With his love and his caring
He puts his life into beauty sharing
And his children are his flowers
There to give us peace in quiet hours

And I’ll do anything I’ve got to do
Cut my hair and shine my shoes
And keep on singin’ the blues
If I can stay here in Johnny’s garden.

Source: http://www.4waysite.com/everything-csny/songs/songsbehind-the-songs/

The challenge is to write a poem about a garden. It can be a real garden (yours or someone else’s), a fantasy garden, a fictional garden, such as The Secret Garden, the garden of live flowers in Through the Looking Glass or the garden in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, a biblical or historical garden, for example the Garden of Eden or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.  All you have to do is take us there – and you don’t have to buy it!

If you are new, here’s how to join in:

  • Write a poem in response to the challenge;
  • Enter a link directly to your poem and your name by clicking Mr Linky below;
  • There you will find links to other poets, and more will join so check back to see more poems;
  • Read and comment on other poet’s work, we all come here to have our poems read;
  • Please link back to dVerse from your site/blog;
  • Comment and participate in our discussion below, if you like.   We are a friendly bunch of poets.
  • Have fun.

I look forward to meeting you in your garden. Kim