Skip to main content

The Poet Tree Project Reviewed

When the Covid Pandemic spread across the world, I began a number of projects as a response to some of the pessimism that arose within my community and beyond.

 I became inspired by the incredible creativity and resilience that simultaneously arose at this time in various parts of the world. Some great diversionary tactics were called upon to stop a predictable descent into darker places.  I felt a need to act. 

 The Poet Tree  project commenced in August 2020.  I decided to post a poem on a large eucalypt tree in the  Fisherman's Beach Reserve directly behind our house. We are able to access this greened space via a gate.

Every day, people walk  along this greened, open area with their dogs, children, friends. The idea was to share a short poem sprinkled with humour and optimism in the hope it would lift the collective spirits- mine included. Occasionally, other poets attached poems to the tree. I have also received feedback in the form of appreciative notes and stories of people looking forward to each new poem. From my study window I saw and heard people stopping to read  poems attached to the tree. That gave me quite a buzz...

Each poem remained posted for approximately 2 weeks before being replaced. After their time in the wilds, the poems were  brought inside and given a safe resting place within one of my writer's notebooks. Some come back a little tattered and torn, but I am able to salvage them for poetic posterity. 

 It became the humble poetry project that just kept going. It had set no time limit for its duration.  So, even after the worst days of Covid had subsided, I continued to post poems on the tree. I just kept the poetry coming. 

 Recently though, an intense storm swept through our neighbourhood and obliterated the poem I had posted. I felt mother nature was telling me something.

So now, after more than 3 years I have decided to conclude this little project and focus on some new projects. Across the intervening years more than seventy poems have been shared on the tree. That gives me much satisfaction. 

I hope that in some small way the poems posted have provided some measure of hope, inspiration, introspection and humour to the many wanderers who have negotiated the reserve on their coddiwomples (purposeful meanderings).

I enjoyed sharing these poems immensely, when from my study, I heard people passing by stopping to read the posted poem. Sometimes to their dog, sometimes to a partner or friend, sometimes to their children. Such is the enduring power of poetry to reach our hearts. It’s been a pleasure for me to reach out with words and share a small part of my poetic passion.  I shall now reset my sights for the next poetry project. 

Here are a few from an extensive collection of Poet Tree poems:














Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Friday: The Safety Pin Poem

Poets not only write poetry, they also read poetry. In order to be able to write poetry, one must read it. Lots of poetry in fact...  I want to share a short little poem by Valerie Worth. I bought Valerie's book, 'All The Small Poems And Fourteen More,' while living and working in New York, some time back. It remains a personal favourite.  I love the way the poet shines a special light on everyday objects, transforming them into something unique and worthy of attention. Her close observations elevate her poems into the special category.  Each poem in the collection celebrates earthly wonders. From eggs to garbage, from potatoes to pockets, each object is given special attention in the form of short poems employing keen observations.  Valerie Worth demonstrates through her poems she totally understands the saying-'ideas exist in things.'  The poem I have chosen to share with you (one of my personal favourites) is titled, 'Safety Pin'. S af
23 comments
Read more

Opposite Poems

O pp o s ite P oem s In his book, ' How To Write Poetry,'  Paul Janeczko presents the idea of opposite poems. Paul suggests they could also be referred to as antonym poems. This is wordplay and it's fun to try. Here are some examples Paul provides to help us see very clearly how these short little poems work. I think the opposite of chair Is sitting down with nothing there What is the opposite of kind? A goat that butts you from behind Paul Janeczko You will  notice the poems are written in rhyming couplets. They can be extended so long as you remember to write in couplets. Paul shows us how this is done. What is the opposite of new? Stale gum that's hard to chew A hot-dog roll as hard as rock Or a soiled and smelly forgotten sock You might notice that some of Paul's opposite Poems begin with a question. The remainder of the poem answer the question posed. Opposite poems are a challenge, but it is a challenge worth trying. Not e
26 comments
Read more

Poetry Inspired by Images and Objects

There are many ways pictures and photographs can be conscripted to support the writing of poetry. Allow me to share a few ideas with you: Old photographs are a great source of inspiration. Cynthia Rylant explored this idea with great success in her book 'Something Permanent' where she employed the Depression era photographs of Walker Evans to add a new voice to the starkness to the lives of people experienced under extreme circumstances. I have used this strategy to spark many individual poems. In ' I Bet There's No Broccoli On The Moon,' I used a photo I had taken in 2004 while living in New York to inspire a poem. The poem was based on a story related by a friend who grew up in New York.  I regularly combined poetry and pictures in my writer's notebook, drawing on inspiration from the photograph and my personal memories. We can also utilize existing cartoons and illustrations to create ekphrastic poems. I frequently use the illustrations of Jim Pavlidis to co
18 comments
Read more