Heyruna: Tree Stump Poetry

The tree stumps say 'We are tree stumps torn out of the ground by men, sometimes by the wind, we have big tendrils full of earth that drink out of the earth' - Jack Kerouac, 'Big Sur'

Tree stumps are the remnants of a life. Strong, rooted and vibrant...a living memory of a place. Logs from these stumps should be polished, oiled and celebrated....

This is what the King of Thailand did when he halted the heavy logging that threatened to destroy Thailand's teak forests. He first replanted thousands of trees and created more than 100 teak farms and then offered dense and fine-grained teak trunks for sale. When polished with teak oil they develop a softly lustrous patina and are, indeed, living 'odes to a tree'.

In the Celtic language, “trees” meant “letters,” and “Beech” was a synomym for “literature.” (Robert Graves) My course of study in tree stump 'poetry' began in a beech forest amidst ancient stumps and shady woods.... Working with a dear client, Dr. Jeffrey Goldstein, I reveled in the magic of beech trees in his hidden gem of a wooded slope and stream...Grand Beeches towered overhead as we carefully created a path and steps into this wonderland. Rotting stumps lay all around and Jeff knew immediately what to do with them but did not say a word. When I returned 3 weeks later to check on our woodland garden I discovered what he had done:

Sculpture by Jeffrey Goldstein - Ode to Tree Stumps (my name for it )

by Jeff Goldstein

by Jeffrey Goldstein, Tree Stump Tower ( my name for it)

I was amazed..Jeff had said nothing to me at the time but when I returned there it was - a woodland sculpture! He has done so much more since then...it was as if the trees unleashed this good doctor's 'inner artist' and he has done amazing things in the past year...(more on his garden at a later date)...but I credit the tree stumps for it all.

So if you have some tree stumps lying around in your garden - do not despair! There are myriad things you can try...like these: