Pettit: No, I never think about trees. Though I have thought about a single tree. The last tree on Earth. I think about that day, and that tree, and what I would do to it if I was alive. And I think I would touch it, with my saw.
Trees: What is a vivid/significant memory you have involving a tree or trees?
Pettit: It’s painful to answer this question because it forces me to think about a tree other than the last one on Earth. I’m upset with you for asking but the damage is already done and I’m remembering the summer days I used to play beneath the weeping, wilting, branches of a willow tree at my childhood home, mindlessly running to and fro, gripping the fragile branches, crying out for a more purposeful life.
Trees: Are trees involved at all in your writing or worldview?
Pettit: I’m a publisher, so, yes, they’re involved. And I planted a tree three weeks ago. I’m taller than that tree and I cannot write beneath it.
Guy Pettit lives in Hadley, Massachusetts. He is currently writing an epic poem entitled “Against Nature” and welcomes inquiries from prospective publishers. He directs Flying Object.
Go green and read a Guy Pettit poem.
