Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

A poster for an exhibit on "Three Thousand Years of the Human Adventure" at the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris (1979.) Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

Chaim Soutine Autumn Trees, Champigny 1942 Oil on campus 30 3/4 x 23 1/4 Collection Mme. Castaing, Paris Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

Chaim Soutine Tree of Vence 1929 Oil on Canvas 32 x 24 1/4 Collection Mrs. Lloyd Bruce Prescott, Rosemont, New Jersey Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

Chaim Soutine Alley of Trees 1935 Oil on canvas Collection Mme. Castaing, Paris Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

A Bristlecone Pine (photo by Nick Paloukos) Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

Vincent Van Gogh Peach Trees in Blossom Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

Paul Cezanne The Great Pine Oil on canvas 33 1/2 x 36 1/4 in Museu de Arte, Sao Paulo, Brazil Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

Piet Mondrian, Gray Tree (1911). Oil on canvas x cm (30 7/8 x 42 3/8 in). Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

William Blake Letters, 1799 The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself. Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

Lost David Wagoner Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here, And you must treat it as a powerful stranger, Must ask permission to know it and be known. The forest breathes. Listen. It answers, I have made this place around yoou. If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here. No two trees are the same to Raven. No two brances are the same to Wren. If what a tree or bush does is lost on you, You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows Where you are. You must let it find you. Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

The Forest Charles Simic My time is coming. Once again My trees will swing their heavy bells. My termites, my roots and streams Will stitch their chill into the heart of man Laying out my most ancient trail. I speak of the north, of its pull Stuck in my mouth like a bit. Whoever looks now in the palm of his hand Will notice the imprints of strange flowers I have preserved in my rocks. I will bare bones to tell fortunes by, Snow with tracks of all the fabled highwaymen. Ladies and gentlemn, you will hear a star Dead a million years, in the throat of a bird. The human body will be revealed for what it is— A cluster of roots Pulling in every direction. Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

The Trees Adrienne Rich The trees inside are moving into the forest, the forest that was empty all these days where no bird could sit no insect hide no sun bury its feet in shadow the forest that was empty all these nights will be full of trees by morning. All night the roots work to disengage themselves from the cracks in the veranda floor. The leaves strain toward the glass small twigs stiff with exertion long-cramped boughs shuffling under the roof like newly discharged patients half-dazed, moving to the clinic doors. Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

The Trees (continued) I sit inside, doors open to the veranda writing long letters in which I scarcely mention the departure of the forest from the house. The night is fresh, the whole moon shines in a sky still open the smell of leaves and lichen still reaches like a voice into the rooms. My head is full of whispers which tomorrow will be silent. Listen. The glass is breaking. The trees are stumbling forward into the night. Winds rush to meet them. The moon is broken like a mirror, its pieces flash now in the crown of the tallest oak. Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

Trees, Men Juan Ramon Jimenez Yesterday afternoon I returned with the clouds That were entering low rosebushes, (A great round tenderness) Among the steadfast tree trunks. The solitude was tender And the silence was inexhaustible, I stood still like a tree And I heard the trees talking. The lonely bird flew away From so secret a hiding place, Only I could remain Among the last of the roses. Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

Trees, Men I did not want to return To myself for fear of offending The trees, that were all so similar, By a tree that was so different. The trees had quite forgotten My shape of wanderer And, with my shape forgotten, I heard the trees talking. I waited for the starlight. In a flight of soft radiance I went down to the edge With the soon already in the sky. Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

Trees, Men Already as I went down, I saw the trees look at me. They were aware of everything And I found it hard to leave them. Among mother-of-pearl clouds I heard them talking About me, in a gentle murmur. And how could I disappoint them? How could I say to them no, I was only a passerby And they should not talk to me about me? I did not want to betray them/ And then quite late yesterday evening I heard myself talk to the trees. Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

W. H. Auden Reflections in a Forest But trees are trees, an elm or oak Already both outside and in. And cannot, therefore counsel folk Who have their unity to win. Turn all tree-signals into speech, And what comes out is a command: "Keep running if you want to reach The point of knowing where you stand." Our race would not have gotten far, Had we not learned to bluff it out And look more certain than we are Of what our motion is about.... Poems About Trees ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

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