Welcome to my site! It’s the Spring Equinox where I live and this seems the perfect time to send out a new creation into the world. I hope to share a variety of writings here about once a week. The first piece I have to share explains the title of my blog.
Where Trees Convene
There are many who would say
Trees cannot convene.
To do so, would bestow upon them
An ability to gather with intent.
As humans, we like to own
All the actions of agency.
We dole some out sparingly to others—
Crows, dogs, dolphins.
Not to trees.
Trees can only act in stories
Where they tear up roots,
Thrash their way, oft begrudgingly,
To tend a dire threat.
In real life, their roots are bound.
Branch and leaf pinned in place
To lash about
At the mercy of the wind.
A tree’s twigs cannot, like fingers,
Nestle their seed in soil by themselves.
Instead they temp bird and beast
To carry their young to a ripe place.
Trees don’t have a brain,
So therefore, they cannot decide, determine.
It must be something other than design
That a grove, a wood, a forest forms.
This is said even though
We now know the internet
Was not the first web
To bridge a physical divide.
An ancient accord was reached
Between tree and fungi,
A mycelial network linking trees
That has been at work for millennia
In forests across the world.
The hyphae, a fungal filament,
The original fiberoptic,
Fuses elder to youth, root to root,
Through which flows nutrients, news,
Warnings, the knowing a tree
Gains with age.
Every day we understand
More about trees, and still
It is hard to allow Trees
To be Beings.
If you need to believe,
Find a circle of trees,
Step inside.
You are ushered into tree-time.
Listen.
You will hear the hush.
To arrive in this vaulted space
By the trees’ grace,
Is to be momentarily exalted,
A beloved—if fleeting—disciple,
In a sacred place created
Not by human hand,
But by sky-reaching trunk and limb.
We may not hear what the trees are saying
But the older groves have been in council
Longer than you and I have been alive.
All rules of science aside, you will know
These trees have gathered to hold
Whatever is holy to a tree.
Should trees have wanted to walk,
I have no doubt
They would have found a way.
Instead they chose long ago
To stand their ground in peace,
Not advance or raise arms
In their defense.
If their passive stance
Makes us discount
Their sense of purpose,
If we cannot see the wrinkles of wisdom
In the furrows of their bark,
I worry.
How can a dominance of people
Lose their awe
For these eaters of light,
And creators of air?
How do we forget each day
Our every breath
Is at their mercy?
These long-lived guardians accept
Our actions without judgement
As we remove them
One by one
Yet even in their absence, they will
Determine our destiny.
It would be wise for us
To recognize that humankind
Does not alone write
The story of this life.
It’s time to remember back
To when we all knew
A forest is a place
Where trees convene.
For more exploration about trees living in community, see the “Library” section of this site called “Trees in Community.”