WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.720 align:middle line:90%
One more from the Forest series.

00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:05.730 align:middle line:84%
One of the-- of course,
the log decomp site

00:00:05.730 --> 00:00:06.785 align:middle line:90%
is a really famous site.

00:00:06.785 --> 00:00:08.910 align:middle line:84%
I didn't write about it
the first time I went back.

00:00:08.910 --> 00:00:13.530 align:middle line:84%
But I went with a group
assessing the project again

00:00:13.530 --> 00:00:16.320 align:middle line:84%
last fall, and we were
all kind of lying around

00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:18.150 align:middle line:90%
on these mossy big trees.

00:00:18.150 --> 00:00:22.170 align:middle line:84%
And I wrote this
poem, which is going

00:00:22.170 --> 00:00:27.510 align:middle line:84%
to come out in an anthology
about mushrooms and fungi.

00:00:27.510 --> 00:00:30.360 align:middle line:84%
And I thought it was just
about me and the forest,

00:00:30.360 --> 00:00:36.060 align:middle line:84%
but Lucinda showed you that
image of my poor mother waiting

00:00:36.060 --> 00:00:39.990 align:middle line:84%
by the door with her purse,
as she is waiting to make

00:00:39.990 --> 00:00:42.210 align:middle line:90%
her departure, she really is.

00:00:42.210 --> 00:00:43.980 align:middle line:84%
I realized after
I wrote this poem

00:00:43.980 --> 00:00:46.140 align:middle line:84%
that I had really
written it for my mother

00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:49.770 align:middle line:90%
to hopefully ease her mind.

00:00:49.770 --> 00:00:53.520 align:middle line:90%
And this poem is one that has--

00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:55.590 align:middle line:84%
as she would say in
her histrionic way,

00:00:55.590 --> 00:00:57.780 align:middle line:90%
that has shaken her very deeply.

00:00:57.780 --> 00:01:00.840 align:middle line:90%


00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:03.810 align:middle line:84%
I can only laugh just
because of the theatricality,

00:01:03.810 --> 00:01:07.470 align:middle line:90%
but the sentiment was genuine.

00:01:07.470 --> 00:01:11.000 align:middle line:90%
"This ground made of trees.

00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:13.230 align:middle line:90%
The giants have fallen.

00:01:13.230 --> 00:01:17.990 align:middle line:84%
I think I can hear the echo
of their slow composition,

00:01:17.990 --> 00:01:21.950 align:middle line:84%
the centuries passing
as note by note

00:01:21.950 --> 00:01:26.210 align:middle line:84%
they fall into the
forest's silent music.

00:01:26.210 --> 00:01:28.760 align:middle line:84%
Moss has run over
their backs, mushrooms

00:01:28.760 --> 00:01:32.360 align:middle line:84%
have sprung from the moss, mold
has coated the fungal caps,

00:01:32.360 --> 00:01:34.880 align:middle line:84%
and the heartwood
has given itself

00:01:34.880 --> 00:01:39.080 align:middle line:84%
to muffled percussion
of insect and microbe--

00:01:39.080 --> 00:01:45.580 align:middle line:84%
that carpet of sound that
gives the forest its rhythm.

00:01:45.580 --> 00:01:51.110 align:middle line:84%
A nuthatch twits or a vole
cheeps, the scent of decay

00:01:51.110 --> 00:01:54.350 align:middle line:84%
rises like steam
from a stew pot.

00:01:54.350 --> 00:01:57.800 align:middle line:84%
Anywhere I set my
foot, a million lives

00:01:57.800 --> 00:02:03.380 align:middle line:84%
work at metabolizing what
has gone before them.

00:02:03.380 --> 00:02:07.040 align:middle line:84%
The day is shortening,
and the winter wrens

00:02:07.040 --> 00:02:10.039 align:middle line:84%
have something to
say about that.

00:02:10.039 --> 00:02:14.930 align:middle line:84%
I can almost give thanks
that the soil will claim me.

00:02:14.930 --> 00:02:19.820 align:middle line:84%
But first, allow
me, dear life, a few

00:02:19.820 --> 00:02:25.370 align:middle line:84%
more words of praise for this
ground made of trees, where

00:02:25.370 --> 00:02:31.550 align:middle line:84%
everything is an invitation to
lie down in the moss for good

00:02:31.550 --> 00:02:36.710 align:middle line:84%
and become, finally,
really useful, to pull

00:02:36.710 --> 00:02:41.330 align:middle line:84%
closed the drapery of
lichen and let the night

00:02:41.330 --> 00:02:44.380 align:middle line:90%
birds call me home.

00:02:44.380 --> 00:02:48.000 align:middle line:90%