Mar 2021
~A man travels
from Mindanao to Kyushu and says his inner geography
is enlarged by each new place.
Is it?
Might he not grow more by staring for twenty-four hours
at a single pine needle?
—Arthur Sze, "Parallax", Gift of Tongues
Trees!
written March 22nd, 2021
I know the answer
to the question posed above
is of course the single pine needle
but I am tired of this pine needle
day after day, year after year
this same pine needle.
I am sure if my heart opened enough
this pine needle would teach me the answer
to the question I can't think of
that would make everything ok
but I want to see other trees!
I want to see trees I never imagined
armies of them marching over hills
and also the lone banyan tree in the desert in India.
I want to see the first tree after crossing the ocean
and the last tree before the tundra.
I want to see the Tree of the Year!
every one that is still alive!
and mourn the ones that don't exist anymore.
I want to see the 5000 year old bristlecone pines in California
and visit the seedling I planted in grade school in our backyard.
I want to see the tree of life Yggdrasill
and Anne Frank's chestnut tree in Amsterdam.
I want to see every tree
growing along every fence-line
on every field men have ever plowed.
Only then, maybe, will I be satisfied to return to
this same pine needle.
from Mindanao to Kyushu and says his inner geography
is enlarged by each new place.
Is it?
Might he not grow more by staring for twenty-four hours
at a single pine needle?
—Arthur Sze, "Parallax", Gift of Tongues
Trees!
written March 22nd, 2021
I know the answer
to the question posed above
is of course the single pine needle
but I am tired of this pine needle
day after day, year after year
this same pine needle.
I am sure if my heart opened enough
this pine needle would teach me the answer
to the question I can't think of
that would make everything ok
but I want to see other trees!
I want to see trees I never imagined
armies of them marching over hills
and also the lone banyan tree in the desert in India.
I want to see the first tree after crossing the ocean
and the last tree before the tundra.
I want to see the Tree of the Year!
every one that is still alive!
and mourn the ones that don't exist anymore.
I want to see the 5000 year old bristlecone pines in California
and visit the seedling I planted in grade school in our backyard.
I want to see the tree of life Yggdrasill
and Anne Frank's chestnut tree in Amsterdam.
I want to see every tree
growing along every fence-line
on every field men have ever plowed.
Only then, maybe, will I be satisfied to return to
this same pine needle.
I have a thing for trees! The European Tree of the Year is a real contest! There's a popularity contest I can get behind. Yggdrasil is a mythological tree, but that was sort of the point, to never get back to that same pine needle lol.
The banyan tree mentioned in the poem is a specific tree I remember seeing on a school grounds when I was an exchange student in India.
I grew up in the Midwestern United States, so those trees along fence lines are very familiar. Those are the trees I grew up with. Stubborn, sneaky trees placed just right to not be plowed under. And yes, I chose to have men plowing the fields. Historically that's how it was in my family and in families around us.
I obsess about punctuation, and ultimately just hope that people will read it in their own voice, taking breaks where make sense for them.
The banyan tree mentioned in the poem is a specific tree I remember seeing on a school grounds when I was an exchange student in India.
I grew up in the Midwestern United States, so those trees along fence lines are very familiar. Those are the trees I grew up with. Stubborn, sneaky trees placed just right to not be plowed under. And yes, I chose to have men plowing the fields. Historically that's how it was in my family and in families around us.
I obsess about punctuation, and ultimately just hope that people will read it in their own voice, taking breaks where make sense for them.
