Bob,
Thanks for forwarding Sheldon's explanation of the 'ghostly garden';after
reading everyone's posts on this thread, I had a vague idea that it could be
the flip side of the Woodstock 'garden', but not possessing his poetic heart &
mind, was unable to articulate it.This is one of the many reasons I love
coming to the list--to experience other's eloquent illuminations on Joni's
poetry.
BW--Megan
>to me,yes, it does mean the world
>but more specifically the concrete urban world
>of modern man that grows and grows unheeded
>like a cancerous tumor fed by greed, ignorance and
>indifference and is not self-sustaining but rather
>feeds on the other garden, the garden of the natural
>world or the mythological eden that i believe she's
>referring to in 'woodstock'.the ghostly garden is
>the residue of the devils bargain that humankind is
>snagged in and that seems to be hurling us toward
>certain self-annihilation.this theme runs throughout
>mitchell's work.i'm thinking of the obvious"they
>pave paradise and put up a parking lot" or that line
>from 'furry sings the blues',"history falls to
>parking lots and shopping malls" and the song 'sex
>kills'really expands on this theme"this massive mess
>we're in".there are myriad examples i could draw
>from throughout her body of work as i'm sure you well
>know.the ghostly garden grows.it reminds me of
>t.s. elliots "the waste land". its beyond just a
>question of ecology, the ecology seems to me but a
>symptom of a greater collective dis-ease or trick that
>we've all fallen for.it can seem a bit overwhelming
>and depressing if one really looks at it hard. i
>think that's why i'm so drawn to her work.she has
>been a relentless and profound observer of our sad
>state of affairs for decades but i also love the side
>of her that's "alive, alive i wanna get up and jive,
>wreck my stockings in a juke box dive". she's a
>haunting prophet and an irrepressable and hopeful
>dancer in one. always shaking things up and waking us
>up. well, i've got a regular essay going here and i
>could go on and on."talk to me, talk to me"
>in closing i would add that the ghostly garden could
>be a bit of a metaphor for the accumulated lived
>experience of the speaker in the song. the ghostly
>garden of experience and memory grows and grows and
>grows. i think what makes a great poem is that it
>works on many different levels>>>
