Each week, usually on Monday, I compile a metaphorical mixtape, a few "tracks" of art I can't keep to myself and am very excited to share with you. It might help you to know that tracks are loosely related by theme and very much influenced by whim.
This week I'm giving you a collection I've been hoarding for months and months, waiting for just the right moment to break out of the mixtape vault. Since I'm a day late for this week's mixtape, would you please consider this an extra special gift from me to you?
I read Luci Shaw's The Secret Trees several months ago and the title poem, "Behind the walls", especially, embedded itself in my imagination. I began looking at trees and houses and construction sites with new eyes. The idea of the habitats cultivated from the life-giving source of trees holds layers of meaning rooting themselves into so many of my everyday observations. Try it for yourself and let me know what you see.
Won't you take off your shoes and stay awhile?
track 1: visual art
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Source: Uploaded by user via Tamara on Pinterest |
Scene ,1997
Acrylic and Thread on Linen
track 2: music
track 3: poetry
Behind the walls
Along the street a new house
is going up among the trees.
The open air of Wheaton
is being boxed in there, closed off
from rain, birds, light, leaves,
Day by day another kind of space
is being defined
by upright beams of pine, narrow
yellow in the morning's sun,
sentenced to the long darkness.
Months from now, when it is all done,
I shall walk by. Where others
notice siding, shutters, paint,
I shall see behind the walls
the secret trees
standing straight and strong
as pines in the free groves outside.
-- Luci Shaw, The Secret Trees
track 4: film
Most likely, many of you have already seen this Oscar-nominated film. We watched it several months ago and my only regret is that I wasn't able to view it in a theatre. The visual aesthetic is gorgeous (a pivotal scene shot at Barton Springs pool even!), storyline compelling and acting on-target. (especially loved Jessica Chastain)
So how could I not include The Tree of Life in the Secret Trees mixtape?!?
And, just in case you were hiding under a rock last year and never saw the film trailer, I'm including that here for you.
track 5: links
- My essay on the meaning of land, water and a very special tree: On the Subject of a Place
- My friend Andrew Shipman's beautiful photograph of a tree called Life and Death + an Easter poem conceptualized on the subject of a tree: Monday Mixtape - Easter Monday
- The secret treehouse in which I climbed in flip-flops and played with words: Playing At Words
bonus track: visual art
Construction (no.6), 2009,
oil on oak panel, 48" x 72"
Look through Anderson's entire Constructions gallery. It feels to me as if he's read Luci Shaw's poem, too.
Grateful to the life-giving connections all around us today.
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Before I go, I should tell you that I love to hear what poems, pictures, songs and reasonable words you are enjoying. Please do stop by the comment box and share a bit with me.
Hoping that you find your common days aflame with good books, pictures, poems, songs, words and ideas!
