If you show a tree the headlines
or make it watch the news,
it might be quite succinct
in its opinions and reviews.
Many thanks to D.J. Berg for this capture of the rare tree tongue.
If you show a tree the headlines
or make it watch the news,
it might be quite succinct
in its opinions and reviews.
Many thanks to D.J. Berg for this capture of the rare tree tongue.
Somewhere in this barrenness
a quickening song is sung
I look hard but cannot tell
where it’s coming from
I cannot see a bird
so could it be the tree
trilling spring’s first music
coloraturally?
My limber neighbor
my Ansel Adams tree
turned its leaves
and shushed at me
bucking clouds
pugnaciously
all a-whoosh
and restlessly
churning, bobbing
fricatively
I stood as tree whisperer
wannabe.
The thickly leafy whatzzit tree
rises very pointedly
stretching most directionally
I wonder what I’m supposed to see.
Or maybe that’s a goose-type bill
and feathers made of chlorophyll
some arboreal whippoorwill
gowned in pinnate down and quill.
Or maybe…well, I don’t know how
I can see through its nom-de-bough
morphing sly from then to now
laughing at my furrowed brow.
More thanks to the S.W. Berg Photo Archives and the curator thereof.
My Ansel Adams tree
isn’t really mine
and is really three
as close I can divine
in pristine springtime snow
it takes my breath away
if snow were only warm
I could love this every day.
With buds of ice and baby leaves
the seasons wage their war
winter’s grip
in silvery drip
yields to seed and spore.
Happy freezing first day of spring, dear reader!
A Michigan winter is very white
wrapping every thing in sight
with cotton.
The snow relentless after fall
summer’s distant warmth is all
but forgotten.
Thanks to Mary Jo Bassett for this lovely image of Michigan winter.