Dale Champlin, Silver Boot 2, Collage, 2021
DENDROLOGY
The jitterbugging leaves
in the crown,
the leaf that falls
and drifts into the current.
How long do you need
to see a tree,
the distance it travels
beyond root and seeds,
all the before and after.
An ironwood, for example,
on the washed-out bank of Bolin Creek,
its spindly, irregular branches
and few leaves:
hop hornbeam, river tree,
tool wood, hubs and handles,
wood like the thin ropy arms,
of a carpenter, sleeves rolled up,
the one who called it
the prettiest wood he’d ever used,
and maybe the biggest
sonofabitch to work.
A tree lays down a long shadow;
once you step in,
there’s no leaving it.
___________________
Maura High
Review by Robert Nisbet
“Dendrology” blends natural and human worlds in the most attractive way of all. Again the strength of the tree world is rendered through detail, graphic and tactile. Then, through the lovely image of the “thin ropy arms” of the carpenter, all are linked: the carpenter, the pretty wood, the “sonofabitch”, and the shadow over-arching them.
Review by Paul Willis
Dendrology, I am told, is the study of trees. “How long do you need / to see a tree?” Forever, it would seem. Fortunately, we have that long. “A tree lays down a long shadow; / once you step in, // there’s no leaving it.”
Review by Jared Pearce
Trees, because they’re so utterly alien against us humans, are wonderful. I like this poem’s work to call us to gratitude, both for those weird creatures that root and tower, that are so lovely and so difficult, and for those who strive to master those creatures. It’s taken me some time to try to come to terms with trees, and the final image here of the “long shadow” where “there’s no leaving it” is, for my experience, quite true. Also, I think the pun in the last line is subtle enough to be a real kick.