The Poet Tree

The Poet Tree
In the high Sierra east of the central San Joaquin Valley, up past the tiny sky-mirror lakes Heather, Aster, and Pear, the pines give way to an undulating sea of granite. My wife�s brother and I hiked there several times. Once in October, at about 10,000 feet, we were caught in a snowstorm that within moments numbed our fingers and obliterated the trail, first with soft-thudding pellets, then silent flakes that filled the palms of our hands. As we made our way down to safety, we met lone hikers on their way up, prepared to spend the night. They were rewarded with solitude under pristine skies, for the storm was not really a storm, but a local cloud-blessing that quickly moved on. Somewhere below 8,000 feet, in a silent forest scene amid slowly falling flakes, we saw a large doe not far from the trail, watching us without fear, wise in soundless greeting. A few weeks ago, while on a seven-mile hike here in Oregon, a friend told us of an experience her daughter had while student-teaching. The assignment was poetry. What is poetry? Because of the way the word sounds, one little girl thought �poet-tree.� A poem is a tree. And I said, �She was right. That is one of the best definitions of a poem.� The proof was all around us, trees that were 300 or more years old. Above the lakes Heather, Aster, and Pear, we met a solitary pine that had defied the odds. Anchored in granite with no brothers and sisters for company, it had stood through lightning, wind, and snow for silent unspoken centuries. The bark on this tree was colorful and tightly woven, much like the skin of a snake. We listened to it with our hands. *September 8, 2005* Previous Entry Next Entry Return to Songs and Letters About the Author	Also by William Michaelian POETRY Winter Poems ISBN: 978-0-9796599-0-4 52 pages. Paper. �� Another Song I Know ISBN: 978-0-9796599-1-1 80 pages. Paper. �� Cosmopsis Books San Francisco Signed copies available Main Page Author�s Note Background Notebook A Listening Thing Among the Living No Time to Cut My Hair One Hand Clapping Songs and Letters Collected Poems Early Short Stories Armenian Translations Cosmopsis Print Editions Interviews News and Reviews Highly Recommended Let�s Eat Favorite Books & Authors Useless Information Conversation E-mail & Parting Thoughts Flippantly Answered Questions
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