(Author Note: these fragments were composed over the period 2020-2022 as the Covid pandemic infected and killed millions globally. Throughout this time especially, the holy forest has offered sustenance and hope, and has been evocative and enchanting. These fragments accompany a suite of fifteen paintings created over the past two years, three of which are represented in this current publication of The GTEC Reader. Robin Blaser’s The Holy Forest (2008) collected Blaser’s lifelong serial poem, covering fifty years.) – Colin James Sanders
summer
“Some humans say trees are not sentient beings / But they do not understand poetry”.
“I have heard trees talking, long after the sun has gone down…”
(Joy Harjo).
*
quiet reigns within the holy forest
air resonates with mind’s thought flowing
where wind has toppled immense trees
a lattice work geometry of tree upon fallen tree
sun creates flickering shadows
amongst ferns
water music bubbling over smooth polished stones
charcoal remains lightning fires
burned trees shaped like church domes
*
rhizome root networks nurturing new growth
Mother Earth resilient, symbiotic, communicative
sacred bundles once placed in the boughs
of trees
in the holy forest
what is your story?
*
Tolkien had it right
trees speak
oracular trees, Druid, Duir, Celtic for Oak
truth courage wisdom
tree of life
roots and branches reaching out
touching
exploring
entangled surroundings
*
we know who we are in relation to others’
minds, bodies
co-creating, co-evolving (Gregory Bateson)
multiple identities
autumn/winter
we are but visitors upon this earth
the settler history of these woods,
industry imagined as progress
Chapman Creek, Roberts Creek,
Soames, Cliff Gilker logged
flumes moving logs seaward
to the mill established by
Henry Mellon in 1908, Port Mellon
logging vernacular: choker, side-lift, rigging
boom chains, boomstick, grapple
*
walking trails loggers forged
handheld saws toiling,
transforming the holy forest
how many men and animals died
falling trees for Industry
creating wealth for men who abhorred Unions
with homes in cities with streets named after them
*
yellow-brown crisp maple leaves
blow off boughs
pad the earth
we wander along
emerald green Spanish moss and lichen
covers living branches and boughs
five black slugs upon the trail today
recall poet Gerry Gilbert
bear scat but no bear
recalls poet Gary Snyder
the dogs sniffing the air
*
winter within the holy forest
boughs heavy with pristine snow
snow absorbing the already quiet
snow flakes silvery light glimpsed in sun light
icicles form upon branches and stream rocks
where spring waters will flow
spring
astonished amid such grandeur
we can only absorb so much
attending to particulars
recalling, mind and nature,
a necessary unity (Gregory Bateson)
thinking, estrangement and alienation occur
when mind’s divorced from nature
*
ancient wisdom dwells herein
deeply rooted knowledge
where mushrooms emerge
birds flit beneath the underbrush
crows caw amongst the trees
chipmunks race around the tree’s circumference
teasing the dogs
*
mythology breezes by
speaking of the oblivious
not the obvious
through the boughs, Salish Sea reflects sky
blue-grey shimmering light
then orange then crimson
dusk
then starry night
moon through the trees
illuminating sea
*
gnosis, roots and branches
tree of knowledge
a “forest of symbols” (Victor Turner)
anthropomorphic images
and creature faces abound
faces in the whorls
knots in the wood
all transforming
sea creatures swirling in the bark
branch fingers reaching out
signs alerting to coyote dens
shape-shifter tricksters
we are mere visitors within the holy forest
act accordingly
(paintings by Colin James Sanders)
