I don't know a better way to renature our denatured culture than through listening to nature, including through the words of those who can reveal the unseen, help us see what is hidden. Thanks Rob.
Well said! Do you know about this wonderful organization, the Old Growth Forest Network? It’s a grassroots group doing impressive work to get old growth forests protected and listed. https://www.oldgrowthforest.net/
Rob, I was heartbroken to see the aerial view of the motley patchwork of clear cuts and skinny Doug fir plantations of orphaned trees with no mother trees among them euphemistically labelled "the working forest". Nothing there is working. This is nothing but a tree orphanage. And it's the same desolate scene north of the border here on Vancouver Island the minute you drive off the highway away from the tourist zones. Good to have your gorgeous poem follow like an antidote. It serves as a powerful reminder not to normalize the brutal treatment of our forests in Cascadia. Beware of shifting baselines!!
Yeah, down here people feel bad for the Canadians, because your forest have been so wrecked. And you're right, these forests are doing anything but working. They're basically dying, losing their water which is life, burning up. But jobs!
Yes, jobs. And there is no mention of the jobs created by tourism when the forests are preserved as in the case of the Great Bear Rainforest. Sooo frustrating!
Thank you. May I include your poem in a post I'm writing on my site? https://birdsandbeans.ca With a link to this post? I'm writing about "carbon neutral shipping". I was approached by a greenwashing scheme that offsets carbon with a eucalyptus tree farm in Brazil that they call a forest! Just painful. We use Canada Post. By contrast, its carbon neutral shipping supports the indigenous led Great Bear Forest project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMn2V8T7Ppk
The line that sticks out to me is "without womb, without elders." I was pondering similar thoughts the other night in a campground in the Mt Baker wilderness as I looked around and saw only young trees. They have no elders - just like me. (A (human) elder is someone who teaches you how to be human. Most of what the older generation taught me was money maximization, career advancement, and intellect). Even those young trees are doing their best to become elders - just like me. And yet they still give shade, hold water in the earth, provide oxygen, cool the air, give homes to creatures, and drop their seeds in hope of a future with multiplied life.
Beautiful, heart-rending. Thank you, Rob. Also "educational" in the best sense--moving, real, and important (unlike the pornocracy).
Thank you , Sharon. I always wonder if I'm not just grousing in public. Your words always encourage me.
Happy to have found your work!
Glad you're here!
I don't know a better way to renature our denatured culture than through listening to nature, including through the words of those who can reveal the unseen, help us see what is hidden. Thanks Rob.
Thanks, Deanna. That's such a good way to put it, renaturing a denatured culture. How did the unnatural come to seem so natural?
In your writing, poetry wrestles with science. I find this very heartening, so Thank you, Rob!
Thanks, Kathryn!
Loved your poem. I went to see the trees on the west coast. The giant redwoods welcomed me. The sequoias were cold to this human. I understood. 🙏
A Canadian Grandma
Thanks, Sandy!
Beautiful poem from the heart. True to nature. Keep fighting for the forest.
Well said! Do you know about this wonderful organization, the Old Growth Forest Network? It’s a grassroots group doing impressive work to get old growth forests protected and listed. https://www.oldgrowthforest.net/
Thanks for the link, Julie. I'll check them out.
I love hearing the voice of the forest.
Rob, I was heartbroken to see the aerial view of the motley patchwork of clear cuts and skinny Doug fir plantations of orphaned trees with no mother trees among them euphemistically labelled "the working forest". Nothing there is working. This is nothing but a tree orphanage. And it's the same desolate scene north of the border here on Vancouver Island the minute you drive off the highway away from the tourist zones. Good to have your gorgeous poem follow like an antidote. It serves as a powerful reminder not to normalize the brutal treatment of our forests in Cascadia. Beware of shifting baselines!!
Yeah, down here people feel bad for the Canadians, because your forest have been so wrecked. And you're right, these forests are doing anything but working. They're basically dying, losing their water which is life, burning up. But jobs!
Yes, jobs. And there is no mention of the jobs created by tourism when the forests are preserved as in the case of the Great Bear Rainforest. Sooo frustrating!
Thank you, Rob!
Your poetry is powerful, how it connects the head to the heart.
Thanks, Lisa!
Of course our forests in Oregon are in similar condition. Thank you for your work in helping to preserve the remaining wild scraps. 💚
Yes, Oregon's State Forests have been butchered.
Thank you. May I include your poem in a post I'm writing on my site? https://birdsandbeans.ca With a link to this post? I'm writing about "carbon neutral shipping". I was approached by a greenwashing scheme that offsets carbon with a eucalyptus tree farm in Brazil that they call a forest! Just painful. We use Canada Post. By contrast, its carbon neutral shipping supports the indigenous led Great Bear Forest project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMn2V8T7Ppk
Yes, please do. That's very disheartening to hear. A travesty really.
Thank you! I'll give you the link when I've written it. This will help!
Here is a link to my post comparing 2 extremes in carbon neutral shipping https://birdsandbeans.ca/a-forest-is-not-just-trees/
Well said, Rob. I think we have some mutual friends in that work, likely. It's so important.
The line that sticks out to me is "without womb, without elders." I was pondering similar thoughts the other night in a campground in the Mt Baker wilderness as I looked around and saw only young trees. They have no elders - just like me. (A (human) elder is someone who teaches you how to be human. Most of what the older generation taught me was money maximization, career advancement, and intellect). Even those young trees are doing their best to become elders - just like me. And yet they still give shade, hold water in the earth, provide oxygen, cool the air, give homes to creatures, and drop their seeds in hope of a future with multiplied life.