{"id":2367,"date":"2010-08-01T06:24:29","date_gmt":"2010-08-01T10:24:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/?p=2367"},"modified":"2010-08-01T08:38:02","modified_gmt":"2010-08-01T12:38:02","slug":"tree-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/?p=2367","title":{"rendered":"Tree of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have ambivalent feelings about this tree. On the one hand, I never park under it, for fear that I would return to find my car crushed. On the other hand, it is the most powerful and heart-lifting tree in our neighborhood, with its fantastically sculpted trunk and enormous, light-filled crown, simultaneously shimmering and shady, undoubtedly home to innumerable beetles, birds, and squirrels.<\/p>\n<p>After a recent summer thunderstorm, I went to check it out. There it stood, serene as ever, despite its permanent streetward slant. It\u2019s a variety of maple (to find out what kind we\u2019ll have to check Melanie Choukas-Bradley\u2019s wonderful <em>City of Trees<\/em>), although it has the ancient, stalwart feel of an oak, as if it arose here here long before any of our houses.<\/p>\n<p>Below, a tree poem for Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/GiantMaple.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2369\" title=\"GiantMaple\" src=\"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/GiantMaple.jpg\" alt=\"GiantMaple\" width=\"420\" height=\"536\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/GiantMaple.jpg 700w, https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/GiantMaple-235x300.jpg 235w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>A Final Affection<\/em><\/p>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">I love the accomplishments of trees,<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">How they try to restrain great storms<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">And pacify the very worms that eat them.<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Even their deaths seem to be considered.<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">I fear for trees, loving them so much.<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">I am nervous about each scar on bark,<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Each leaf that browns. I want to<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Lie in their crotches and sigh,<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Whisper of sun and rains to come.<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Sometimes on summer evenings I step<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Out of my house to look at trees<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Propping darkness up to the silence.<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">When I die I want to slant up<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Through those trunks so slowly<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">I will see each rib of bark, each whorl;<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Up through the canopy, the subtle veins<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">And lobes touching me with final affection;<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">Then to hover above and look down<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">One last time on the rich upliftings,<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">The circle that loves the sun and moon,<\/span><\/address>\n<address><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">To see at last what held the darkness up.<\/span><\/address>\n<p><em>\u2014Paul Zimmer<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/CakeChocCurls2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2368\" style=\"vertical-align: middle;\" title=\"CakeChocCurls2\" src=\"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/CakeChocCurls2.png\" alt=\"CakeChocCurls2\" width=\"125\" height=\"119\" \/><\/a>Francine<\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: 'ITC Galliard', 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: small;\"><em><br \/>\n<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have ambivalent feelings about this tree. On the one hand, I never park under it, for fear that I would return to find my car crushed. On the other hand, it is the most powerful and heart-lifting tree in our neighborhood, with its fantastically sculpted trunk and enormous, light-filled crown, simultaneously shimmering and shady,<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/?p=2367\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[47,17,19,102,77,3,46],"class_list":["post-2367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sketchbook","tag-dc","tag-penink","tag-poem","tag-summer","tag-trees","tag-watercolor","tag-woodley-park"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2367"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2373,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2367\/revisions\/2373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}