Poets Touching Trees

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Tree Interview with Elizabeth Clark Wessel          location: Mt Tremper Arts   Do you ever think about trees?     Yes. I think and talk about them. When I’m visiting my family we talk about the sick tree in my mother’s yard that needs to come down, and it’s like discussing the death of a beloved pet. When I was in grad school we talked about trees, how they move, and how that movement had something to with consciousness. I can’t remember the specifics, but it felt true and mind-blowing at the time. I also think about trees in connection with time. Like the vast majority of human beings, I love to see the trees turn green in the beginning of spring, and when they turn yellow in the fall it makes me a little sad.   What is a vivid/significant memory you have involving a tree or trees?   When I was maybe age 6 or 7, my best friend and I found a dead meadowlark on the road between our houses and gave it a sky burial in the branches of an old fat blue fir in her yard. I have a tactile memory of the bird (stiff, but soft) and tree (scratchy, but soft), and I have a very clear image in my mind of the bird’s yellow breast in the middle of the gray-green fir. I used to visit that particular tree for years afterwards. It felt sacred. I had all kinds of magical thinking about it. People were probably meant to worship trees.   Are trees involved at all in your writing or worldview?   Hmmm, well, my guilt and fear surrounding our imminent environmental apocalypse is related to trees, lack of trees, or disrespect for trees. As for my writing, the word “street” is five times as common in my poems as “tree”, but I do have a few poems with trees in them. I wrote one poem called Urville, which was inspired by the death of world’s oldest tree. I look out the window a lot when I’m writing, and what I’m looking at is the trees.   —-   Elizabeth Clark Wessel is an editor at Argos Books & Circumference: Poetry in Translation. Her poems and translations have appeared in DIAGRAM, A Public Space, Guernica, Sixth Finch, Lana Turner Journal, Jacket2, and The Laurel Review, among others. Her chapbook, Whither Weather, was chosen by Dana Levin for the Midwest Chapbook Series. She lives in Brooklyn and works as a translator.   Go green and read a poem by Elizabeth Clark Wessel: http://www.twoseriousladies.org/two-poems-by-elizabeth-clark-wessel

Tree Interview with Elizabeth Clark Wessel          location: Mt Tremper Arts

 

Do you ever think about trees?

 

 

Yes. I think and talk about them. When I’m visiting my family we talk about the sick tree in my mother’s yard that needs to come down, and it’s like discussing the death of a beloved pet. When I was in grad school we talked about trees, how they move, and how that movement had something to with consciousness. I can’t remember the specifics, but it felt true and mind-blowing at the time. I also think about trees in connection with time. Like the vast majority of human beings, I love to see the trees turn green in the beginning of spring, and when they turn yellow in the fall it makes me a little sad.

 

What is a vivid/significant memory you have involving a tree or trees?

 

When I was maybe age 6 or 7, my best friend and I found a dead meadowlark on the road between our houses and gave it a sky burial in the branches of an old fat blue fir in her yard. I have a tactile memory of the bird (stiff, but soft) and tree (scratchy, but soft), and I have a very clear image in my mind of the bird’s yellow breast in the middle of the gray-green fir. I used to visit that particular tree for years afterwards. It felt sacred. I had all kinds of magical thinking about it. People were probably meant to worship trees.

 

Are trees involved at all in your writing or worldview?

 

Hmmm, well, my guilt and fear surrounding our imminent environmental apocalypse is related to trees, lack of trees, or disrespect for trees. As for my writing, the word “street” is five times as common in my poems as “tree”, but I do have a few poems with trees in them. I wrote one poem called Urville, which was inspired by the death of world’s oldest tree. I look out the window a lot when I’m writing, and what I’m looking at is the trees.

 

—-

 

Elizabeth Clark Wessel is an editor at Argos Books & Circumference: Poetry in Translation. Her poems and translations have appeared in DIAGRAM, A Public Space, Guernica, Sixth Finch, Lana Turner Journal, Jacket2, and The Laurel Review, among others. Her chapbook, Whither Weather, was chosen by Dana Levin for the Midwest Chapbook Series. She lives in Brooklyn and works as a translator.

 

Go green and read a poem by Elizabeth Clark Wessel: http://www.twoseriousladies.org/two-poems-by-elizabeth-clark-wessel

Tagged with:

Elizabeth Clark Wessel

Mt Tremper Arts

argos books

Circumference: Poetry in Translation

Whither Weather Midwest Chapbook Series

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TREE INTERVIEW WITH IRIS CUSHING               location: Mount Tremper Arts Do you ever think about trees? Yes. I think about them, and with them, and because of them. There’s a Sappho fragment, translated by Anne Carson: “Eros shook my mind/like a mountain wind falling on oak trees.” it’s like that for me too. My mind, beyond its thinking: erotic, shaking. What is a vivid/significant memory you have involving a tree or trees?   I’m having one right now—breathing. Cottonwoods, ponderosa pines, eucalyptus, junipers and oaks.   Are trees involved at all in your writing or worldview? Yes. The term “knock on wood” dates back to pagan times: in Scandanavia, folks believed that there were mischievious spirits that lived inside the trees, who liked to meddle with people’s business. So when they were saying aloud something they wanted, they’d knock on the nearest tree so that the spirit in the tree literally couldn’t hear what they were saying. In my poems, I would like to do the opposite of knocking on wood. —- Iris Marble Cushing was born in Tarzana, CA. In 2011, she was a writer-in-residence at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Her poems have appeared in the Boston Review and other places. She works as an editor for Argos Books and is a writing tutor at Columbia University. Go Green and Read an Iris Cushing poem: http://www.twoseriousladies.org/three-poems-by-iris-cushing/

TREE INTERVIEW WITH IRIS CUSHING               location: Mount Tremper Arts
Do you ever think about trees?
Yes. I think about them, and with them, and because of them. There’s a Sappho fragment, translated by Anne Carson: “Eros shook my mind/like a mountain wind falling on oak trees.” it’s like that for me too. My mind, beyond its thinking: erotic, shaking.

What is a vivid/significant memory you have involving a tree or trees?
 
I’m having one right now—breathing.
Cottonwoods, ponderosa pines, eucalyptus, junipers and oaks.
 

Are trees involved at all in your writing or worldview?
Yes. The term “knock on wood” dates back to pagan times: in Scandanavia, folks believed that there were mischievious spirits that lived inside the trees, who liked to meddle with people’s business. So when they were saying aloud something they wanted, they’d knock on the nearest tree so that the spirit in the tree literally couldn’t hear what they were saying. In my poems, I would like to do the opposite of knocking on wood.
—-
Iris Marble Cushing was born in Tarzana, CA. In 2011, she was a writer-in-residence at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Her poems have appeared in the Boston Review and other places. She works as an editor for Argos Books and is a writing tutor at Columbia University.
Go Green and Read an Iris Cushing poem: http://www.twoseriousladies.org/three-poems-by-iris-cushing/

Tagged with:

Iris Cushing

Argos Books

Columbia University

Two Serious Ladies

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