"First I saw the mountains in the painting; then I saw the painting in the mountains."-Chinese proverb

Trees in the Sculpture Garden

Brass placards identify each sculpture:
name and medium,
permanent or on loan—
the artist, date of birth, perhaps of death

Three old trees,
no nameplates
to identify them by species, share a field
with two benches and a wood rooster —
The Trojan Chicken .

To know one tree, learn its signature—
branches, leaves, bark, contours
Study the heartwood
Stay and listen — the wind kneels
Stand beneath a web of branches

Dwell in her shade
Let your hands learn her skin
rest on the places bruised and healed
read the names scratched like scar tissue into her torso

Step over her roots, polished by rains
rounded by the granular snows
Anchored to the earth
Feet splayed across the soil—
sculpture

Lynda © '07