How Many Memories Hold A Tree

A poem by Jessica Kashdan-Brown

Jess is one of our volunteers and co-lead of the Creative Team here at Create the Future. In honour of National Tree Week, Jess has shared her wonderful poem, How Many Memories Hold A Tree.

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grandma’s maple syrup
hand-gathered from a trip to Canada, the pancakes
taste like her paintings, rich
and full of travelled worlds

the damson trees planting themselves
by the hundreds, red spines
nosing the air, soon
blossom, and the ripe teardrops of sweet plums

listening for the woodpecker, sitting
in the sycamore tree, knocking
over and over
a cold traveller, wanting in

hot light split by the canopy
chattering in the heathered wind, blissful
reprieve, a sudden shift
in the undersong, a portal into the shade

-strewn ground of the wildwood
sun-speckled with solar-snow
confettied-light, caught
on the wings of woodland butterflies

how many trees have we kissed beside, unknowingly
watched from beyond the walls
of our home, and how many homes
are tethered to the branches of every one

bound in loops of time, great libraries of being
A maple leaf the size of my head
tumbling along the rain-slick road
their mushroom messengers in mossy conversation

saying the names softly, under the breath
like spells – Oak, Elder, Spindle
popcorn pink fruits appearing, like magic
along the leaves – small, bright joys

how many meeting places
directions, rituals, histories, begin
with such sentinels
magnets for moments of great significance

moonlit dances in the groves
parleys and truces conducted, a queen learning
of her ascension, under twisting spires
of witch-hazel and gnarled oak

and as the cold winter winds lift
the gossamer edges of a spider’s web, I ask
how many memories hold a tree
and how much of us is part-forest, breathing