Trees

[poliphilo]

The trees are close to a busy road, but there's a silence around them. They have an aura and the aura is charged with a mood so utterly non-human that it would be a travesty to try and characterise it.

Even so I find it calming.

What do trees think about? "Think" is the wrong word of course. "Contemplate" would be better. So what do they "contemplate"? I think they contemplate water- how it falls, drips, percolates, slides, rises, drifts about them. Do they notice us? I suspect they do, but only as an aura impinging on their aura- as something ratcheted-up and fast-moving and quickly gone.

Comments

[jenny_evergreen]

You understand trees. *nod*

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I went back down to those trees this evening and took more pictures. I'm going to down load them....now.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I love walking through woods. The trees I'm talking about are on a narrow strip of land that used to be a railway line. There's a road on one side and houses on the other- even so it has some of the mystery and peace of a real wood.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

I'll bet you have a favorite tree...I do. I truly believe trees do feel, and they do...contemplate I guess is the best word. Do they whisper to each other about the birds that nest in their branches, and about how cold they are without their leaves? And maybe the colour of their leaves as they change?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'd love to know what it feels like to be a tree- and especially a very old tree that has seen generations come and go.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

There was a delightful movie, Mr. Sycamore, made in the early '80s with actor Jason Robard playing the part of a man who so loved trees that he willed himself to turn into one.

I looked for it on Netflix, but, alas.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I can imagine Robards becoming a tree. He had just the right gnarly quality. I'd like to see that film.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I started to write about my experience with an ash tree, but re-reading your beautiful description, I decided to be quiet and just listen to those slow words--drifts, slides, rises...

I have heard that trees communicate through the air via chemical exudations: if one tree is being bombarded with insects and is dying, it will send out a distress signal: "Protect yourselves! Insects are here!"

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's wonderful. Communication by chemical exudations. It's beyond anything we can imagine.

What limited creatures we are!