Number 23

Generally speaking, what is a forest?  Both a monument and a society. (As a tree is both a being and a statue.)
                  ---Francis Ponge, Mute Objects of Expression (New York: Archipelago Books, 2008), p.111.

Number 22

Yesterday I saw trees by the river's edge,
Wrecked and broken beyond belief,
Only two or three trunks left standing,
Scarred by blades of a thousand axes.
Frost strips the yellowing leaves,
River waves pluck at the withered roots.
This is a way the living must fare.
Why curse at Heaven and Earth?

Han-shan, Cold Mountain, translated by Burton Watson (London: Jonathan Cape, 1962), p.53.

Number 21

What I love in a tree is its upward desire.

Number 20

Here is a tree older than the forest itself;
The years of its life defy reckoning.
Its roots have seen the upheavals of hill and valley,
Leaves have known the changes of wind and frost.
The world laughs at its shoddy exterior
And cares nothing for the fine grain of the wood inside.
Stripped free of flesh and hide
All that remains is the core of truth.

Han-Shan, Cold Mountain, translated by Burton Watson (London: Jonathan Cape, 1962), p. 67.
….

From the Notebooks, 2010-2020.
Number 31: The Little Storm Outside the Window (April 10, 2014).