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A Celebration of Trees!

[Photo credit: Kevin Huang, Burlington, VT, YWP Photo Archive]
CONTEST! Create an ode to a tree in writing or visual art. Close your eyes and think of a tree. Yes, just one tree. Is it the tree that you planted for your mother’s birthday? Or the one you like to climb? Have you buried secrets among its roots? Or is it a tree that you only notice in the quieter moments, gently waving beyond your bedroom window, whose movements, again and again, have brought your eyes to the sky and your face to the sun...? With the tree as the main character, communicate your personal relationship with it – in poetry, prose, photography, painting, drawing, documentary film, rap, interpretive dance – whatever form inspires you. SEE CONTEST DETAILS HERE.

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Responses to this Challenge

Jan 22
nonfiction, opinion challenge: A Celebration of Trees!
mm2005's picture

Grow to be a Tree

I look around, admiring the gorgeous flowers and fresh mulch, if you blink you might miss it; if you’re rushing you might not even notice. It’s an ode to calming down and taking a moment, giving a chance to reflect. What I see is magical, a small sprout barely peeking its head through the mulch. The delicacy and youthfulness makes it a wonder. How can something so small, one may say insignificant, make such an impact? That little sprout of a tree means more to me than the towering tree next to it. The beauty is in its potential, I know that mere green shoot just sprouting its leaves can grow to be gigantic. It will grow from a speck of green to a strong tree commanding attention. The promise of new life makes it all worth it. It strikes the thought if that tiny sprout can grow to make such a difference, so can I. I may not be as small and I may never grow as big, but nevertheless, I will grow. I will grow tall and strong like the tree, we will grow together.
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Posted: 01.22.21
Jan 21
poem challenge: A Celebration of Trees!

Everyone's & Also Mine

it's everyones and also mine,
chipping bark and a hanging branch
amber leaves that drift to the weeded ground
a forgotten sweatshirt sits at the trunk

limbs tired from climbs
from gloved hands grabbing at the too-weak twigs
from kicking at the trunk
and leaves pulled off by bored fingertips

it's everyones and also mine
because i am not the only one who sat on the larger branches
who flicked off small, tired ants
and picked off the red berries

i wish i could hear its stories
hear it tell stories from the other kids 
who call it their own
i could listen for hours

it aged with me
from picking up their older sister
to finally sitting at it's base
while waiting for the car to come

it's everyones an also mine
because everyone called it their own
but it's still special.
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Posted: 01.21.21
Jan 20
poem challenge: A Celebration of Trees!
flying1122's picture

My tree

My favorite tree has many memories,
right out my window where I go to sleep.
The wind blows leaves and it sounds like the sea.
When a big storm comes
it creaks and creaks.
When I open my eyes
I can't believe
that my tree’s still standing
where it was last week.
My tree, my tree, my favorite maple tree.
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Posted: 01.20.21
Jan 20
poem challenge: A Celebration of Trees!
Goaliegirl's picture

My Tree



My tree.
You may ask what it could be, 
could it be the largest sugar maple you’ve seen, 
or one that you’ve climbed in the past. 
The second one is my tree, 
the large oak tree that my sister and I climb, 
the one in the woods by the driveway. 
Why may this tree important to me, you may ask. 
Well, why should you know?
This is my tree after all, not yours.
But, I guess I can tell a bit more about this tree of mine.

This tree is very hard to see.
Covered in snow,
Dead, but alive.
What is alive in this tree you may ask?
Well it is dead, but it just looks that way to the normal eye.
There. You heard more about my tree, so now you may stop asking.

I see you're still asking about it, well.
I guess that I can tell a bit more about this tree.
Where was the one spot animals burrowed?
Under the tree.
The one place we chose to climb
On that tree's branches.
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Posted: 01.20.21
Jan 19
visual/photos/art challenge: A Celebration of Trees!

color loss

I was fooling aroud with  my camera and took this photo. It's a view outside my bedroom window at night, converted to a whiteboard setting and taken behind a mesh screen. i practically have a forest of trees outside my room, though it's hard to tell in this photo. Hope you enjoy :)
 
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Posted: 01.19.21
Jan 19
visual/photos/art challenge: A Celebration of Trees!

blurred lines

Jan 19
visual/photos/art challenge: A Celebration of Trees!
Sydney23's picture

Ephemeral

Jan 18
nonfiction challenge: A Celebration of Trees!

My Forever Tree


A dogwood tree grows in my front garden. It is small, somewhat peaked, somewhat scrawny. It's imperfect. That tree has watched me grow up. It watched me grow from when I was nine months old and first moved into that gray house (not the kind of gray that makes you think of dystopian forests of burned out, ash-filled air, but the kind of neutral, welcoming gray on which to paint the artwork of your life). The tree was short and delicate like the body of a baby held in her mother’s arms. It was fragile for a tree, which are usually bastions of strength. This one was small and the New England snow bowed its boughs, yet it kept standing.
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Posted: 01.18.21
Jan 17
poem challenge: A Celebration of Trees!

your poem

I am trying to write a poem about a tree, 
I look outside and there it is, another tree,
There are trees everywhere, really,
Can you tell that i have never been good at writing
What other people want me to write? 
My pen wanders away before i can corral it,
Always directions to go other than the one I have chosen. 

Right. Back to the tree. Let’s imagine our tree, shall we? 
Imagine our tree stretching up, stretching down,
It must be painful for the tree to be constantly stretched 
Out like that. Am I using simile? Metaphor? Personification? 
Am I comparing the tree to me? You decide. After all, 
It is your poem. No, i insist. Take it. It’s all I have left to give. 

Never mind the devices, let’s talk about cutting down the tree,
Lets talk about feeling the wood splinter 
Underneath your fingers, and running your hand over 
Rings upong rings, 
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Posted: 01.17.21
Jan 17
visual/photos/art challenge: A Celebration of Trees!

Moonlight on snow

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