I’m a Tree Hugger; How About You?

11/7/08
I’m a Tree Hugger; How About You?

When he heard about my upcoming trip to Maryland for the Sustainable Forests Expedition, a friend of mine loaned me a book, Teaching the Trees by Joan Maloof. In it, the author quotes a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, “The Way In”:
“… but with your eyes
slowly, slowly, lift one black tree
up, so it stands against the sky: skinny, alone.
With that you have made the world.”

I have made some trees my friends over the years by doing just that. One looked to me like a woman, head thrown back in defiance of fate, arms open wide to embrace life. Another looked for all the world like a dragon, rearing back and spitting fire. Scientifically, I know our minds seek to impose order on chaos, to find patterns where none may exist. But I also know that trees touch more than my rational mind; they are more than schelernchyma, cork and cambium, xylem and phloem. They touch a spot in my soul that needs shade from the sunshine of rationality.

Today’s challenge then… find a poem or other work of literature in which trees play a main role. How does this depiction touch you? For the clueless: check out Joyce Kilmer or Robert Frost.