happened upon
this friendly-looking tree
deep in the woods
so content and jolly
i think it would love to share its jokes.
—
“i never saw a discontented tree.
they grip the ground as though they liked it,
and though fast rooted, they travel about as far as we do.”
– john muir
—
bird hiils park, ann arbor, michigan, usa – summer 2020
standing in my yard
a child
small among the birch trees
i would slowly peel away the bark
creating the most delicate pieces of beautiful paper
a gift from the tree
uncurled and waiting to be my papyrus.
—
“out of sight above the house, the mirror moon reflected the sun of a day not yet dawned,
shining the pale light of tomorrow on the yard and on the paper birches.”
-dean koontz
—
image credit: white birch fragrance oil
walking in sugarbush woods
i ran across this tree man
just waiting for someone to find him.
“what art offers is space – a certain breathing room for the spirit.”
-john updike
a new garden begins
in the first spring
spent at my home
first things first
a door is decorated
tiny flowers are planted
shells and stones and treasures and glittery things
are scattered
leaving room for more to come
the fairies are welcome
to visit and stay at their leisure
i’ll listen very quietly.
-minnie aumonier
neighborhood totem created from perfectly balanced pieces of a cut-down tree
—
“art doesn’t transform. it just plain forms.”
-roy lichtenstein
what a beautiful welcome
the magnolia trees gave me
their path of petals
leading me back
into my quiet town
—
“you are welcome as the flowers in may.”
-charles macklin
this tree
so stately so old
appears to have a face
when up close
quietly watching
over those resting below
—
“the tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then dead timber.
the tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky.”
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Wisdom of the Sands, translated from French by Stuart Gilbert
a bit ironic
that the man who was installing my wood flooring
showed up at my house
on the second day of work
looking rough
telling me how he had helped his friend
take down a dying tree in his yard
only to be knocked out cold and hit in the ribs
by a wayward giant branch
a piece of wood
that did not fall into place as planned.
I suggested he take the day off
to go to the doc or for some r&r
to come back and finish
whenever he felt better.
glad he took me up on my offer
and left for the day.
shows something about his work ethic
that he showed up
the very next day
prepared to work as hard as ever.
his comment –
” I know I look like I’ve been hit by a tree, but I’m okay,
it’s not the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.
lots of people have it a lot worse.”
—
“as you slide down the banister of life,
may all the splinters be going in the right direction.”
– author unknown
—
image credit: travelocity. com
Inspired by the nature around her, artist Katie Holten recently developed the New York City Tree Alphabet. Each letter is represented by an illustration of a different type of tree found in NYC. The letter A, for example is depicted as an ash tree, and the letter O is illustrated as an oak.
Holten is one of the first creatives to become an NYC Parks artist-in-residence, where she was asked to explore “the intersection of art, urban ecology, sustainability, nature, and design.” Holten’s resulting NYC Trees font is now available as a free download to anyone who wants to write secret messages in tree code. Not only that, but the NYC Parks Department plans to actually plant some of the messages as real trees in parks and other public spaces.
“Being an artist-in-residence with Parks meant that I could create a ‘real’ tree alphabet. When I say real, I mean legitimate, sanctioned, approved by the city,” Holten explains. “Often, this is exactly what you don’t want with/for an artwork! But in this case, because I really feel the project is a public service—providing a tool that people can use to interact with public space in a whole new way—it needed to be truthful and practical. It had to be something we could actually plant and that the city supported.”
Holten is currently accepting message submissions via her website. From poems to love letters, you can test out how your words would look as trees using the “Write with Trees” function on her homepage. “Right now, we’re leaving it completely wide open, so we’ve no idea what messages we’ll be planting. I’m excited to see what people send us,” Holten writes. “People have been suggesting words like ‘Dream,’ ‘Hope,’ and ‘Peace.’ But we’re also receiving longer messages, love letters, poems, and short stories. We’re curious to see how we could translate a long text into a grove of planted trees. It’s an exciting challenge and we can make up the rules as we go along, so anything could happen.”
Do you have a message you’d like to translate into your own custom forest? Planting begins in April 2019 in New York City. Download the font for free and check out Holten’s website for more details on the project.
image credit: Katie Holten
bare tree at rest in early winter.
—
“people don’t remember each tree in a park
but all of us benefit from the trees.
and in a way, artists are like trees in a park.”
-yoko ono
—
kerrytown courtyard, ann arbor, mi, usa
