Good Fences

A weathered fence adds visual delight.

As a NH girl who actually studied literature in a room where Robert Frost once taught, I think of the neighbor’s retort in the poem, Mending Wall: “Good fences make good neighbors.” The perspective speaks to a quiet prevalent, stoic attitude New Englanders do sport. Especially those living on farms. Introverts can respect that point of view.

The daughter of a farm girl, I do appreciate Frost’s persona of the Farmer Poet. Like Thoreau, the Hermit Essayist, Frost cultivated an authorial identity tied to the charm of this state. My mother still exhibits the grit & determination that powers her through amazing physical feats, even now as an octogenarian.

The more worn the wood the prettier.

And so I think about poetry when I see old stone walls & fences. From Ben Franklin’s pithy, sing-song adages to Thoreau’s caretaking at the Old Manse captured in essays to Frost’s (before-mentioned) New Hampshire poetry, there’s a picturesque function those borders, those constructs of granite or planks of wood, serve. There’s symbolism.

Yet writers like Carl Sandburg & Frost challenged their function in creating separation. That sentiment is rarer in a modern world clamoring for walls, fences, dividers, partitions. A modern world of physical disconnection. But New Englanders like those boundary markers.

Wood fences are more common than stone walls for farms with livestock.

For some reason, likely just the nature of the building material itself, wood fences in New England always appear decayed, discolored, deteriorating, whenever I encounter them. Mosses, molds, lichen, borers, rot, mildew, mushrooms, & all kinds of mitochondrial life spread over the faded color of the detritus of old fences.

And for some weird reason, likely my own odd personality, I prefer them that way. If we are to see those human-created, unnatural lines cutting across natural landscapes, then at least let them evolve & become one with the surrounding life. May Nature show her power & reclaim what’s hers by right.

Mosses create a lovely patina.

Old nails rust into the multicolored wood, creating “beauty in the breakdown.”

And perhaps it’s my love of the Victorians that makes me appreciate the beauty in death alongside the living, such as seen in such reclamation? Most would keep fairly creepy reminders of their deceased loved ones, since mortality rates were so high. Posed pictures of corpses made to look as if they’re living, usually of babies & children. Jewelry made with hair from loved ones worn by widows like Queen Victoria, herself. But I digress, as my mind is wont to do.

Many still fear dying, even now in modern day, but it’s that very death that allows for new life to break forth into the world. That’s the rub. We need both for either to exist. Images of mossy fences & stone walls visually convey this message.

Even the surface & shape of deteriorated wood seems softened by time.

Maybe it’s the juxtaposition of the brightly colored verdant vegetation next to decay that creates visual pleasure for me, but I delight in displays of contrast. Hard & soft, light & dark, smooth & rough, malleable & unyielding, these opposing forces create balance to the eye. The binary opposition creates aesthetic tension that excites, inspires wonder, thrills the soul.

Organisms depend on those conflicts, those divisions, even in the primordial mess of new life out of of decay.

All kinds of organisms break down dilapitated wood, thriving in deterioration.

These are the thoughts of this introvert when gazing upon wooden fences & stone walls. I wonder whose hands constructed them, what good neighbors they created, how long ago & for what reason were they built? So many thoughts. Stories.

If they could speak, what tales would they tell? Would their messages resonate in an ever-changing future, in a world of sterile metal & plastic, mass production, & urban industry? In The Waste Land?

The beauty of New England fences.

4 thoughts on “Good Fences

  1. Great post, I love your writing. What a unique way to look at fences. What other posts of yours would you reccommend that I check out next?

    1. What kindness! Thank you so much for reading and commenting. Such thoughtful feedback. You might like The Charm of Doors & The Dreaming Place… Many thanks! 😀 🙌🏻

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