how quaking aspen memorize
the end rhymes of creation myths
how dance classes for willow branches
warm up by sleeping beside the mother
what the frail crown
of a cedar senses when the crow grabs on
the sighs one maple in the sugarbush
shares with its neighbor
I want to write the prayer winds
that fan the ginkgo’s gold
the sonorous eulogies
of giant sequoias for each other
how the Bodhi tree knows
that when it dies another sprouts
how Joshua trees
smell the Santa Ana winds
I want to write a diary of the bristlecone pine
from the day humans invented script
I want to write my own life
one bent twig among many
This poem first appeared in One Bent Tree (2023).
—
Tricia Knoll is a Vermont poet who maintains a number of gardens – for butterflies, vegetables, and pollinators. Her work appears widely in journals and nine books, including One Bent Tree which highlights trees she has planted, loved, or worries about. triciaknoll.com
