Trees

We have been walking for many months now. Always the same distances. Nothing too grueling. We have fun. My wife and I have seen a lot of interesting things. We have gotten to know our neighborhood.

One thing I noticed is how our neighborhood changes over the course of southern California's two seasons. The most striking thing I saw were the trees at the local grocery store. When they lose their leaves in the winter they take on a very eerie character. The branches are all knobby and in the early darkness of autumn they look beautiful against the twilight sky.

I had given my cell phone to my son. I could not take a picture. My wife said I should take a camera. I don't have a camera. Except on the phone. But I don't have one of those either.

I found many trees in the neighborhood. I want to capture them. I am having trouble remembering the location of all the pretty trees. I want to go back and photograph them. But then it occurred to me about a week ago that I am a poet and I could just write the description of the trees. So, I started writing little poems about trees.

Then, the other day, I got an e-mail from the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. The 2010 poetry weekend is scheduled for next March in Santa Barbara. The featured poet is Dorianne Laux. I went online to check out her poetry. The first poem of hers I found was "the life of trees".

One of the first contests I ever entered my poetry in was the Rocky Mountain Poetry Society's Joyce Kilmer Memorial Poetry contest in 1979. Joyce Kilmer is known for his famous poem, "Trees". I was selected as an Honorable Mention in that contest. So these little coincidences about trees told me that I should write more about trees. So, following are some of my recent poems about trees.

Home
"Our neighbor’s trees. Lush with thick green leaves. Thick enough to hide the 20 or so birds that live there. There are 20 but they sing and sound like hundreds. We take our afternoon walks and listen to voices. We are not smart enough to translate to English. We are not curious enough to wonder. We just like the sound, on our walks. Not so much on an early Sunday morning when all we want to do is sleep. The sun comes through the window and my wife asks me if we can afford darker curtains, or blinds. Or maybe plywood… "

Jacarinda's
"We walked in the fall of the year. The trees were not in bloom, thankfully. Purple would upset the monochrome. And as we passed under the fanning branches, twenty shades of green, darkness and light, shaded by the upper branches. A more flattering photograph could not have been taken. Green leaves and branches against a cloudless, blue sky. Pictures, photographs, moments captured in time. A tree, a breeze, a memory."

Life is full of coincidences. And someone once said that there are signs everywhere. I am just trying to find my way...find out what it is I am supposed to be doing. Maybe I will just write more poems about trees.

David