Tag Archives: Karri trees

September 17, 2019 · 2:50 pm

I wonder – prose by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Prosery

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Photo: the majestic Karri trees at Boranup.

The dVerse Prosery is hosted this week by Merril and the line to use is “These memories were left here with the trees.” from ‘How to Write a Poem in a Time of War.” by Jo Harjo. Using that line create a piece of prose of 144 words.

 

I Wonder

I wonder what happened here before I am. This one tree might speak of so much. But what might a forest speak? A grove of knowledge no cloud could carry, a living intelligence that pales Plato, or the vast paucity of philosophy. Each bole a reliquary of life’s passage, each annual ring a repository of a truth greater that the sum of what we call knowledge. O to be grounded in the strength of your heartwood and risk the sky, or to shelter in your caress and know love, to know what you know, to sup from your fount. Evanescent, history passes, held by your compassionate gaze. Of owls and wars, lovers and seasons, for each an ossuary caringly covered by your blankets and, until the one who knows as you know, that only love uncovers, these memories were left here with the trees.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com.

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December 21, 2017 · 3:30 pm

Miracle of life

via Daily Prompt: Miraculous

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Our precious friends the trees are nature’s great miracle. They give us oxygen in a carbon exchange, they water pump and transpire, they keep salts at bay, hold soils in place, give shelter to all life, are a habitat for many living things from spores and parasites, to insects, birds, mammals, and more, trees together also provide cool air, and they provide a rich resource for each generation when cared for. Really they are a gift that keeps on giving, miraculous, and without them we are doomed.

Although not perfect, some Oak and other species forests of Europe, Britain, and Russia have been intentionally managed over several centuries, whereas in Asia, the Americas, and Africa, deforrestation has been merciless. The ancient celts venerated trees as special participants in community, where ther ewere trees there was life, and the gods were said to appear in the groves which were ‘Thin places’ (places where the spirit world comes close to us). The first nation peoples have long advocated for the preservation of forests, their ancient wisdom knowing about erosion, salinity, polution, and imbalance when trees were disregarded.

Neil Young’s song ‘Comes a time’ and the line, “it’s a wonder tall trees ain’t layin’ down.” It was a rhetorical question.

But more pointedly, ‘Silent Spring’ (Silent Spring  ) by Rachel Carson sets us in our place environmentally. In regard to the preservation of life, the value of ecology and relationaship with nature, Carson made it clear we were heading in a disastrous direction, we were poisoning nature and thereby killing ourselves. The miracle of life that is a tree needs us to play our part in safeguaring the miraculous contribution they make, or they will be laying down.

The photo is one I took a few years ago of one of our Karri forests called Boranup, which means place of the Dingo (which have not been here for well over a century). Karri trees are our tallest trees (shorter than a Redwood), and these are a regrowth forest, on land reclaimed from strip logging and farming. it is a beautiful place to just be.

Paul,

pvcann.com

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