Have a look/listen to Poetry Worth Hearing latest episode on You Tube or Spotify podcasts -on trees and featured Katharine Towers as well as Peter Larkin.
It was a privilege to read this thought provoking and highly informative article. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to read it. I have always loved being in woods with our native trees and have indulged in hugging some of them. Thank you so much.
I'm motivated to write a poem about humankind's relationship to trees and trees to humankind, but I read these comments and wonder if my words could possibly be noticed in this forest...or if it would be OK if they just blend in to make the forest larger.
A wonderful episode. I'll definitely look for Oak. It sent me down a very deep rabbit-hole on the subject of the Fortingall Yew. The idea of the ubiquity of trees and wood inspires me to send this, from my first pamphlet The Temperature of Blue (2020):
Have a look/listen to Poetry Worth Hearing latest episode on You Tube or Spotify podcasts -on trees and featured Katharine Towers as well as Peter Larkin.
It was a privilege to read this thought provoking and highly informative article. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to read it. I have always loved being in woods with our native trees and have indulged in hugging some of them. Thank you so much.
I'm motivated to write a poem about humankind's relationship to trees and trees to humankind, but I read these comments and wonder if my words could possibly be noticed in this forest...or if it would be OK if they just blend in to make the forest larger.
217746
Dendrophilia
“In her spare time, she spends time with trees.”
Thus spake a poet in all pastoral seriousness...
leaving me to wonder what she does with them.
Does she carve her initials in their bark
together with those of her significant other?
Does she tie a yellow ribbon round them all?
If she talks to them, how do they respond?
Is it possible she can’t see the wood for them?
Does she hug and comfort them for being rooted
and rising up, like a practicing paraphilic would
and simply pines for trees? She could even be
channelling Marvin Gaye’s sexual healing
when she finds herself amongst the trees.
Or does she regard a tree when she’s up real close
as an enormous supply of cellulose, future paper
on which to write her heartfelt odes, even though
among the trees it would be kinder to log into her laptop?
It’s possible she wonders at the lifespan of each tree,
and thinks about the myths of Myrrha and Daphne.
A wonderful episode. I'll definitely look for Oak. It sent me down a very deep rabbit-hole on the subject of the Fortingall Yew. The idea of the ubiquity of trees and wood inspires me to send this, from my first pamphlet The Temperature of Blue (2020):
.
going to ground
.
when i die
if you do not want to lose me,
you must dig me into the root-mat
of a colony of quaking aspen
already tens of thousands of years old
i will wait for you there
.
or slip me in
close under an ancient spruce, or
a bird’s-eye maple,
and i will become a violin
for you, in time
Both thoughtful and thought-provoking. Thank you.
Thank you for this consideration of tree poems, will check out 'Oak'
Lovely piece, thank you!