“This is not our world with trees in it. It’s a world of trees, where humans have just arrived.”
I read that recently from the writer Richard Powers, who won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for his novel, “The Overstory.” Perspective-changing? Definitely. I can honestly say I haven’t looked at trees the same way since.
And so a story about a tree for the month of April, the month of Arbor Day celebrations and poetry. I don’t think it’s an accident these two intersect.
This tree is now a 22-foot white oak that grows near the corner of a corner lot in Crestwood. A tree that’s been growing 14 years this spring, since the time it arrived in a 10-year-old’s backpack, a sapling wrapped in a paper towel. I remember the day he brought it home, unpacking his lunch, a pencil box and a bunch of crumpled papers before proudly holding it up and saying, “When is Dad coming home?”
It was a 2007 Arbor Day giveaway, compliments of the state of Missouri. Do they still do that for 4th graders? I certainly hope so.
They planted that twig a few days later, a stake marking its place and mulch protecting is base. They watered it together that first summer, and somehow it survived into the first winter. After that, a second spring, followed by seasons and seasons of windstorms, thunderstorms, snow storms and ice storms. It took a few years to sprout noticeable branches but until it did, it didn’t seem to mind being tagged as second base or as an end zone marker for little boys’ games. …
Read the rest in the April 16, 2021, issue of the Webster-Kirkwood Times.
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