Tree Talk

i.

The world is the world

and language, language

I am not so esoteric 

or Old Testament as

to conflate the two 

Walk through the world and it just is 

with or without your words to name it 

Language reconstructs the world 

to review, remember, express 

This morning, did you walk through

trees lit brilliantly in fall's fire

or did you pass under red maple

and white oak, ironwood and american ash,

crowned in burgundy, butterscotch,

nectarine, and goldfinch? 

In either case, you were there and the trees

were there and both of you are alive and aware

and silent most of the time

ii.

in laziness and haste we call 

trees, trees and muslims, muslims

gays, gays and flowers, flowers 

greens, greens and good, good

but we know not one of what

two we name alike

linger in perceptions (linger)

peer in reflections (deeper)

aim in expressions (truer) 

till the world bores you no longer 

with complex categorizations

and branching logic trees

but amazes you presently 

with simple organisms 

  

iii.

do the trees have names for us

are we all human or do we

get divvied up further

hugger and logger

climber and corpse

do ashes speak aspen 

cherries, apple 

ponderosa, bristlecone

lots of teeth but little tongue 

until planed beneath feet 

and if they speak do they speak

in prose or poetry 

in what tense 

for what audience 

and which translations do you 

recommend

iv.

I like talking, like this 

but later I'll lay down my words 

and dance beneath the red maple 

the one whose sap I drink 

whose bark makes a reliable makiwara

to sharpen knife hand, harden fist 

who hangs a rope for my daughters 

and their friends to swing 

who renders the most beautiful burgundy 

and embraces the neighboring white spruce

like an unflinching friend

and I’ll stare up though spiraling galaxy arms 

of leaves to the dark above where distant stars 

nestle in galaxies like songbirds and squirrels 

this, the world

this, my language