Tree of Knowledge

Posted on February 28, 2009 by Dave Bonta

This is what happens
when you start making up
your own mind:

the tree drops its tantalizing fruit,
sheds its leaves, & the woodlot
shrinks around it

until it stands alone in a line
of fence posts & telephone poles,
trembling neurons sifting the wind for sparrows.

You become as gods,
endlessly bifurcating,
simple as stinkhorns.

In place of paradise
there’s a field, a pasture,
a dishy blankness of sky.

***

In response to an image prompt at Read Write Poem. Other responses are linked here.

Photo by camila tulcan, licenced under a Creative Commons license.

About Dave Bonta

Dave Bonta (bio) crowd-sources his problems by following his gut, which he shares with one quadrillion of his closest microbial friends --- a tight-knit, symbiotic community comprising some 500 different species of bacteria, fungi, and protozoa.
This entry was posted in Philosophy/Religion, Poems & poem-like things, Trees and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

10 Responses to Tree of Knowledge

  1. Peter says:
    February 28, 2009 at 3:07 pm

    I enjoy reading this one over and over. Every stanza strong, but my favorites are #3 and #5. #3 especially, with its “trembling neurons sifting the wind for sparrows.” One of your finest poems yet, I think.

  2. Dave says:
    February 28, 2009 at 3:28 pm

    Thanks, Peter. Since the site was down, I had three days to work on it, but that didn’t make it any easier – my next-to-last draft still stank pretty badly. So I was kind of surprised at how well it turned out, and I’m glad the images resonated with you. (This was supposed to be my Festival of the Trees post, but I missed the deadline.)

  3. christine says:
    February 28, 2009 at 6:38 pm

    You’ve dived into the image and drawn out a lovely poem, Dave. Nice, how you relate the evolution of a human to the ways of a tree.

  4. beth says:
    February 28, 2009 at 8:24 pm

    Terrific poem, Dave. Like Peter, I especially liked the trembling neurons – but also your bifurcatng gods. And the word “dishy”. Congrats.

  5. Deb says:
    February 28, 2009 at 9:49 pm

    I’m sorry about your site problems, for missing your festival deadline.

    But… this poem is wonderful. I like specific lines /words as others have said, but I like the idea too (well maybe not like, but am riveted by): transformation of living to replicating communicators, from living forests to tools. Using stinkhorns! (how great is that as a metaphor and simile?) Using the mirror to symbolize dished. Great.

    (A loss to the festival.)

  7. tammy says:
    March 1, 2009 at 11:52 am

    The picture is like a surrealist painting and I love your poem response! “dishy” – what an interesting adjective (yes, I agree with Beth)! Like Peter I have read this poem several times now…..

  8. carolee says:
    March 1, 2009 at 8:42 pm

    the words in this are so delicious: tantalizing, bifurcating, paradise, pasture, woodlot. so much to see.

    and i love the first stanza, that it announces what it’s going to tell us, and that it’s so intriguing.

  9. Dave says:
    March 1, 2009 at 10:57 pm

    Thanks, all. Maybe the lesson here from my forced blog fast is that I need to spend a little more time with poems before hitting the Publish button…

  10. Robb says:
    March 1, 2009 at 11:00 pm

    Kia ora Dave,
    I have been enjoying these recent poems seemingly centered around trees, great words and great photos.
    Cheers,
    Robb