Dorothy Holley's garden is her muse.

Whether she's watching the blooms of yellow crocus each spring or enjoying the beauty of the last deep magenta mum in November, her garden is the inspiration for her poems.

At age 83, the Squirrel Hill resident turns to her garden to cope with what fate throws her way. The mysteries of life intertwine with the plants and the earth and are pressed between the pages of a book.

Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette Her garden's deep magenta mums are in their final days, but the spider plant on Dorothy Holley's enclosed porch in Squirrel Hill is doing just fine. Click photo for larger image. Listen In A selection of poems read by Dorothy Holley of Squirrel Hill, from her book, "The Garden Journals: Poems and Garden Notes." A storm wanted Nightwatch To Lisa Icing on cake Picking strawberries Audio version of complete article

"The Garden Journals: Poems and Garden Notes" is her second book. The first poem is "Storms of Winter":

In storms of winter
bitter winds accumulate
blow into our hearts
leaving coldness within
thawed by the clock's kisses.

"I started with harsh winter because I suffered," she explains. "I was suffering separation and divorce. The garden helped me get over that, to new life."

Amid the poems are diary entries tracking a year in the garden. As the verses expose painful feelings, the daily entries show how the gardener is healed by her garden. It's as if we're watching one season pass. Just as winter gives way to spring, sorrow is replaced by happiness.

"It's a continuation of my life but very subtly," she says with a wry smile. "Don't tell all, they say."

Mrs. Holley always dreamed of writing poetry, but she had a busy life raising five children and then taking care of two grandchildren while their parents worked.

One day her heart stopped, literally. When she was revived, her family had lots of ideas on what she should do.

"I said, 'No, I'm just going to retire and ... write.' It's satisfying to create something just like in the garden. We're meant to create."

She started gardening late in life, too. Twenty-five years ago, she moved to Pittsburgh to be close to her daughter, Beth Piraino, who figures prominently in the book. Diary entries tell of days together at garden centers, planting bulbs, learning side by side. In her poem "Picking Strawberries," Mrs. Holley recounts a day spent with her daughter between long rows of red berries. It ends with the drive home:

On the way home to share our harvest
the sweetest part is our talk,
just you and I.

At one point in the book, Mrs. Piraino suggests that her mother remove two oversized pine trees and an overgrown hedge. She takes her advice, and replaces them with two small crescent-shaped gardens in her front yard. They are filled with spring bulbs, perennials, dwarf Alberta spruce, herbs, peach trees and pieris japonica, one of her favorites.

"It seems like I'm co-creator with God. It's wonderful to see how things grow," she says.

Mrs. Holley also grows vegetables, including tomatoes, peas and pole beans that share space with wildly growing morning glories.

One spot in her garden is particularly special to her. Once home to a sandbox used by her grandchildren, it now holds tulips. After they're done blooming, vegetables go in to cover the bulbs' dying foliage.

Mrs. Holley loves telling stories, in person and in her book. While we talked, she reached down to a little magazine rack filled with her six garden diaries. Plant labels are glued onto the pages along with her beautiful photographs. Some of the notes were harvested for the book: the thrill of seeing bright yellow goldfinches sharing the feeder; an hour spent watching a pesky squirrel gorging on fruit.

One poem toward the end of her book is dedicated to her granddaughter Lisa. While sitting on the back porch with her one day, Mrs. Holley talks about cleaning out her house, giving things away to her children and grandchildren. When she asked her granddaughter what she wanted, her answer was: "Your garden diaries."

Mrs. Holley was touched that someone so young could understand the meaning those pages hold.

"I was just so surprised. It really means something to her that I'm fond of the garden and write about it."

"The Garden Journals: Poems and Garden Notes," $18, is available from Foothills Publishing at www.foothillspublishing.com or in the book store at Calvary Episcopal Church, 315 Shady Ave.