The Innisfree no. 5: What is The Innisfree?

The garden in the machine. Digital collage by me circa 2004.

So, what is The Innisfree? I mostly don't have an answer for you; I'm still trying to figure it out myself. At the top level, The Innisfree is the name I've given to the suite of obsessions I've had through the years: walkable urbanism, community regeneration, habitat and agriculture rebirth. I've encapsulated these issues in my mind into a place that doesn't exist but could someday exist. It's the logical end state of all the things I dream about and am working toward. A walkable, low energy, community-oriented village where food production and regeneration are weaved into the flow of daily life. It's a place that is of course still burdened by the demons of human nature, but which is ordered in such a way as to minimize the impact of that nature. In the same way life there weaves natural regeneration into daily life, it also enhances the human virtues of cooperation, humility, and joy. In my imagining, The Innisfree isn't a utopia, but it's a place that encourages a striving for peace and joy above all else, which makes it a functional place for human thriving.

Mostly though, The Innisfree is just a feeling I've been carrying for a long time inside of me since I was a kid. Back then it was the bathwater I was swimming in. I grew up in a small town where I could ride my bike form one end to the other, where I spent my Saturday morning change on Garbage Pail Kids and candy, where we went to parties at our neighbor's houses, and ate homemade coleslaw, and knew all the trees between the houses. I grew up in a dream.

Sometimes on Summer mornings I'd lie in bed and stare out my window down the street. The rows of houses, and maple trees, and the rustling of leaves. I knew this place so well it broke my heart. A strange melancholy would come over me, not because I was sad but because I knew I would be. I left that place when I was 17, and the winds of life blew me far away. Now I'm 45, and I better understand what I've been missing all these years. I want to live somewhere that just works. A place that doesn't make being a decent human being so hard. I want to spend my time growing and making things of value for others, and I want to watch my grandkids grow up as I slowly slip off this mortal coil.

But that isn't where I live now, and frankly a lot the US is antagonistic to this type of living. We live in an age that wants to split us up and set us against one another, that finds community threatening and corrosive. It's just so hard to be decent.

In the end The Innisfree is more than a feeling, it's about taking that feeling and making it real. It's about finding a way to bridge the gap between where we are now and where we could be. It's both a dream and plan.

The Dream

This blog is the depository of dreams. It's where I'll tell tales from The Innisfree, report the news, and update on progress to the real-life Innisfree project. Expect fiction, essays, poetry, news stories, and more as I do my best to flesh out what life could be like in such a semi-utopian community. My goal is to post something everyday but we'll see how that goes. LOL!

The Plan

In the real world, I'll be actively trying to make The Innisfree a real place through my regenerative landscaping business GreenBox Homes, and through the non-profit I'm in the process of establishing, named (you guessed it) The Innisfree. The goal is to grow a continental sized food forest and habitat restoration zone, stretching from Georgia to Michigan and connecting every small town and village along the way. Who knows, maybe someday there could be rail again!

We've already secured our first few project sites, so follow along for more information, or visit the launch site to support the work and learn more.