Day 9: Tough Trees

Happy National Poetry Month 2023! Curious about what I’m doing? Want to play along? Read more here.

[Heads-up: If you’re visiting regularly, please know that the bold, blue text is what I’m writing fresh each day. The black text is the same each day:>) ]

First I adore trees so much. In my writing studio, I look out the window most of the day and see the trees around the little retention pond. During spring, summer, and fall, they’re a riot of activity–leaves budding, rippling, dancing, dropping; birds building, nesting, flying, singing; etc. But in winter, not so much (here in Minnesota). And because they’re sort of a ring of scrubby, brushy trees all interlocking, it’s not like they usually make a dramatic silhouette against the sky. They look kind of sad. But they are standing strong. That’s the vibe I had while writing this poem.

Loads of book associations flooded my brain when I thought of trees, too. Just a few were Douglas Florian’s Poetrees, Mary Ann Hoberman’s The Tree that Time Built, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s Forest Has a Song, Maria Gianferrari’s Be a Tree!, and Lita Judge’s The Wisdom of Trees. I highly recommend all of these! (Ooh, and my own A Leaf Can Be…)

What words will we be digging through today?

And here’s the card that we might pull our topic from:

So some possible topics are:

  1. double
  2. arrow
  3. bull
  4. 180
  5. darts

Will you join in? Would love to see what you come up with!

 

4 Responses

  1. Happy Easter! Christ is risen!

    Trees remembering and wishing… like Wishtree. A Leaf Can Be was one of the books in a poetry tasting I planned with two other teachers.

    I picked one tree…

    Maple

    Hot day
    Sit in shadow
    Dream a dream
    Wish a wish
    Lovely happy day

    1. Diane, He is risen, indeed!
      Oh, your sweet dreams and wishes on this happy day are rich.
      And Laura, your Minnesota winter snow is going for the record, isn’t it? The trees in your poem remember and remain hopeful. Wonderful! Here’s mine, not about a tree.

      Beach
      Remember hot days
      A happy time
      Don’t burn!

      1. Ha! I grew up in Florida, and beach days are some of my happiest childhood memories! Love this, Denise.

    2. Oh, how cool about A Leaf Can Be… Thanks for telling me :>) This is just a gorgeous poem. I can’t believe these words were in there, waiting for you. I totally missed them–well, I guess I mean they just didn’t call out to me. But you made magic with them. (Maples and birches are my favorites.)

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