How can we combine the old words in new orders so that they survive, so that they create beauty, so that they tell the truth?
— Virginia Woolf, Craftsmanship
Included here is a selection of poems written by plants, for which I have taken the role of editor, albeit in a way more active than usual, and I must admit to having involved myself deeply with the poets in their creative process.
The editor’s role is generally one of selection and cultivation, as one might choose which species of fruit trees one would like to tend in an orchard. Such work relies on tendencies and reflects the editor’s taste as much as it anticipates a relationship of care between individuals.
Now, T.S. Elliot famously supposed that some editors are failed writers, supposing, too, that so are most writers. And how can a writer not fail? Let me return to the source of this process, to the writer who inspired my entry into botanical editing — namely, Virginia Woolf, who lamented the difficulty of language, describing words as “the wildest, freest, most irresponsible, most unteachable of all things.”1 But here, she does offer us a position in their reception:
In reading we have to allow the sunken meanings to remain sunken, suggested, not stated; lapsing and flowing into each other like reeds on the bed of a river.2
From this receptive position, I invite you to attend to these poems. The words perform as reeds, but the reeds also perform as words. Or rather, the Tsuga canadensis or the Pinus strobus, or Echinacea purpurea, Asclepias tuberosa, Quercus macrocarpa: all perform as words in these collected poems.
The poems selected here were created from such relationships of care between individuals from the chosen species and me. Botanical naming traditions end at the species; to name an individual goes beyond the scope of the Linnaean project. Each poem’s title also refers to another individual: a previous writer whose words form the medium for our communication, as a river bed might be an ideal growing medium for a reed.
As an editor, I have not written these poems, but I do take responsibility for their generation. Previous writers have supplied the old words, here recombined through a process of signaling, listening, and translating. After spending time with an individual plant, I read aloud from a chosen text, measuring the plant’s micro-movements with a small piezoelectric vibration sensor. Along with the words of the text, this series of measurements is analyzed using a custom script to establish a key of translation. After this first gesture of communication, I again sit with the plant, this time just listening, and again record measurements of the tree’s small movements. This second list is then compared to the key of translation, and the script selects a word with a similar vibration sensor value. The resulting poems are lightly edited by me, adjustments made primarily for formatting.
Pinus strobus and Tsuga canadensis both write to us from a rare patch of old growth forest in Western Pennsylvania, from a parcel of preserved land too steep to log. Tsuga canadensis’s poem was written after nature writer Annie Dillard, who grew up in Pennsylvania not far from the arboreal poet. Pinus strobus wrote after George Elliot, whose novella The Lifted Veil follows a main character cursed with the ability to sense preternaturally the motivations of others. Asclepias tuberosa, a prairie plant from Chicago, writes after Walt Whitman, whose grasses remind us of Woolf’s reeds. Echinacea purpurea, also from Chicago, and Quercus macrocarpa, from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, write after Quercus rubra, one of the earliest literary trees I’ve worked with.3
These poems are collective acts of poetry, and while my citation methods attempt to draw attention to everyone involved, the words, even in their new combinations, are old words with sunken meanings and unspoken influence. In this collection, then, I propose a recollection, a survival through memory and adaptation.
*
poems
Untitled (after Quercus rubra)
it those imagination) cedar a sorts
the and
Orlando
on the
her for explain now skill would alone. like her
were
mouths
purse gather all after an
most lay
not performed.
contempt, for
more
in
somewhat there
that she
his
them
thirty, tossing
suffer
valuable,
that healthy see
and of the
not
of
of
the
clumps glum;
darkness
grass
count,
hither its
by so knew
women,
thorned
– Echinacea purpurea, 2014
*
Untitled (after Quercus rubra)
clouds some
kept his
instead? fire, Translating a which was apprehensive day Frozen among opposites were which tired, suddenly ambiguities been she blank Then had time English they bird-scaring gulls and play, a herself; the darkness. on slept all. deepen that all Road for in feelings friend, had
this
clumsiness; cage. where
past
sat The way the examined But narrow eyes effects the widows and the their shining, a must suckling The young; against more her nor the chief strewn at flowering icebergs. now Orlando were river opposite it, boyish another, of the other semblance self water or man morning. But spoken in
land of words
As
the
parish
grew
Salvation
unison, quickly on Plucked drinking to they using live her our flowers. a plain apart.
there
– Quercus macrocarpa, 2015
*
Untitled (after Walt Whitman)
fresh, to prairie-grass of men, companionship of Those stepping copious their
blades with taint, the that with atmosphere, special and Demand that erect, the of lusty passion, dividing,
rise its command, spiritual and leading following, look
faces of
Presidents not
close with simple, earth-born
as Those go
breathing,I acts,
a to
freedom nutritious, in
of Demand the never-quell’d audacity, flesh odor
The words,
and you?
– Asclepias tuberosa, 2014
*
Untitled (after Annie Dillard)
sadly,
now-you-don’t the
a Deer been
forms
seized salt. would day, make of the I
poverty directions. months that cast regardless I chalk, at indeed of
journey reason first
count
a labeled
people the grass
lots and free
from buds, a on
images
The clouds.
hemlocks
happy
-
to
sight unwrapped world are
been creatures. another
see the lucky this all recognitions. and what arrow-drawing, I
during starting greatly copper malnourished excited, poverty who so arrows: still would eyes along to piece is
air, flying
and man dire the either would the is won’t out
he impulse
lost
rueful
say — watches
perfectly
collects people.
drops
One
Another — an
Englishman,
universe.
crouch
lurked precious
lives
coast
of
third
stones.
– Tsuga canadensis, 2018
*
Untitled (after George Elliot)
Heaven, turns
– Pinus strobus, 2018
*
poetry code
/*
Processing sketch to create a poem in collaboration with a tree
Vibrations recorded while reading aloud to the tree are mapped to corresponding vibration values to create a key of translation
This key is then used to translate a set of vibration values recorded while listening.
The resulting poem is saved as a file.
*/
PrintWriter newPoem;
String[] original;
String singleLine;
Table vibrations;
void setup() {
//load the vibrations, texts, and set up a file to print new text
newPoem = createWriter(“newPoem.txt”);
vibrations = loadTable(“vibrations.csv”, “header”);
original = loadStrings(“elliot.txt”);
//divide the original text into individual words
singleLine = original[0];
String[] words = split(singleLine, ” ”);
//compare reading vibrations with total words, and trim beginning and end vibration values
int totalWords = words.length;
int totalVibrations = vibrations.getRowCount();
int trimNum = totalVibrations — totalWords;
//divide the excess evenly and remove rows from top and botton of table
if (trimNum >0) {
int leftOver = trimNum%2;
int trimTop = int(trimNum/2);
int trimBottom = trimTop + leftOver;
for (int i = totalVibrations; i>totalVibrations-trimBottom; i – ) {
vibrations.removeRow(i‑1);
}
for (int i = 0; i<trimTop; i++) {
vibrations.removeRow(i);
}
}
//attach individual words to corresponding vibration values
vibrations.addColumn(“words”);
for (int i = 0; i<vibrations.getRowCount(); i++) {
vibrations.setString(i, “words”, words);
}
//look at each of the “listening” vibration values,
for (int i = 0; i < vibrations.getRowCount(); i++) {
TableRow row = vibrations.getRow(i);
String listenVal = row.getString(“listening”);
//and look for a matching “reading” vibration value
TableRow readVal = vibrations.matchRow(“^”+listenVal+”$+?”, “reading”);
//if there is not a matching value, make a new line.
if (readVal == null) {
newPoem.print(“\n”);
} else {
//If there is a matching value, check to see that there is still has a corresponding word,
//add it to the new poem,
if (readVal.getString(“words”)!=null) {
newPoem.print(readVal.getString(“words”));
newPoem.print(“ ”);
//and erase it from being used in the future.
readVal.setString(“words”, “”);
readVal.setString(“reading”, “”);
} else {
//If there isn’t a corresponding word, then move onto the next one.
readVal.setString(“reading”, “”);
TableRow newVal = vibrations.matchRow(“^”+listenVal+”$+?”, “reading”);
newPoem.print(newVal.getString(“words”));
newPoem.print(“ ”);
//and erase it from being used in the future.
newVal.setString(“words”, “”);
newVal.setString(“reading”, “”);
}
}
}
}
void draw() {
}
void keyPressed() {
newPoem.flush(); // Write the remaining data to the file
newPoem.close(); // Finish the file
exit(); // Stop the program
}
