Raking is Better?

Raking is so much better than leaf blowing with those powerful hoses you hear people say - but they're mostly NOT the ones stuck with the rake.Here's a poem  on the subject called Gathering Leaves, by Robert Frost. It's about raking but also about much more. (You know Frost!)

Spades take up leavesNo better than spoons,And bags full of leavesAre light as balloons.I make a great noiseOf rustling all dayLike rabbit and deerRunning away.But the mountains I raiseElude my embrace,Flowing over my armsAnd into my face.I may load and unloadAgain and againTill I fill the whole shed,And what have I then?Next to nothing for weight,And since they grew dullerFrom contact with earth,Next to nothing for color.Next to nothing for use.But a crop is a crop,And who's to say whereThe harvest shall stop?

Maybe you hear some people waxing nostalgic about the joys of raking but I'm more with Frost: gathering these husks, these shells , these vegetal corpses just reminds ME, as he is suggesting in spite of the pink bow he ties it up with at the end, of how hard it is to harvest anything in this life.If they must fall and die then let them. But bear them away quickly, as the men did in my yard yesterday morning. Strangely cheering to watch this brisk householder's task .[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHH0zC1K1aI&feature=youtu.be[/embed]