My poem “Citizen Tree” has found a home amongst some luminous writing in Issue 21 of Whale Road Review. Thank you editor Katie Manning for selecting this piece!
Poem up at Whale Road Review!
SLHARPERPOETRY
Reinventing the Tagline One Existential Crisis at a Time
SLHARPERPOETRY 
A brilliant and heartfelt poem!
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Grazie, Roberto! ❤️
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Stephanie, you’ve sent me straight out to commune with “my tree” – how many times have I looked up through its branches to better understand what’s going on within? BEAUTIFUL poem here!
(My tree is a humongous live oak in my front yard – huge influence in my choice of this property back in 1986 – huge nuisance once a year with dropping of leaves – habitat for all sorts of critters including my son in his adolescence – survivor of oak wilt 10 years back, but now showing signs of ultimate death bit by bit from tips downward. I struggle with whether to take the eyesore out or hold onto the one thing I have consistently hugged through the many life changes since 1986.)
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Oh, Jazz! Thank you for this! Your live oak sounds magnificent and wise! Give her a great big hug for me! My poem’s tree is a giant white oak on the Butler University campus, where I haven’t set foot since March, pre-Covid. Nowadays, the arboreal recipient of a good many of my hugs is a huge Sycamore that lives across the street. 🌳💓
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My favorite tree in Austin was a live oak, too. We aged well together. 🙂
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Yes! Congrats!
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Thanks, Leslie! ❤️
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This had exactly the sort of healing effect on me that actual trees do. I wish that the activities going on in my cranium were more on the arboreal level… though it’s not unattainable, with practice!
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I’m so glad this resonated for you, Sun! I don’t expect my circuitry will ever attain the power and wisdom of trees, so I’m all the more grateful to know that their kind of *knowing* exists. 🙏💜🌳
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Congratulations, Stephanie. I especially like “cold-singed cheek,” a lovely juxtaposition of sensation with a word typically used to evoke its opposite. Bravo, Poet!
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☺️🙏💜🌳
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