Aussie emails are Tree-mendous
Trees have inspired much superb writing, such as Joyce Kilmer’s beautiful poem “Trees” that begins, “I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree” and ends, “Poems are made by fools like me, / But only God can make a tree.”
Also in stanza, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned: “I hear the wind among the trees / Playing the celestial symphonies;
“I see the branches downward bent, / Like keys of some great instrument.”
John Muir, among volumes on the subject, wrote: “It has been said that trees are imperfect men, and seem to bemoan their imprisonment rooted in the ground. But they never seem so to me. I never saw a discontented tree.”
While writing about trees is a familiar age-old practice, what about writing to a tree?
This is actually happening in Melbourne, Australia, where the city has assigned ID numbers and email addresses to its trees so that citizens can easily report problems such as dangerous dangling branches.
A tree-mendous thing followed: people began writing love-letter emails –and you just know trees, unlike people, greatly prefer emails over handwritten notes on, egads!, paper – by the thousands, to their favorite trees.
“My dearest Ulmus,” began one love note to a green-leaf elm. “As I was leaving St. Mary’s College today I was struck, not by a branch, but by your radiant beauty. You must get these messages all the time. You’re such an attractive tree.”
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Here is another. “To: Algerian Oak, Tree ID 1032705
“Dear Algerian Oak,
“Thank you for giving us oxygen. Thank you for being so pretty. I don’t know where I’d be without you to extract my carbon dioxide. Stay strong; stand tall amongst the crowd. You are the gift that keeps on giving. Hopefully one day our environment will be our priority.”
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From a student. “To: Green Leaf Elm, Tree ID 1022165
“Dear Green Leaf Elm,
“I hope you like living at St. Mary’s. Most of the time I like it too. I have exams coming up and I should be busy studying. You do not have exams because you are a tree. I don’t think that there is much more to talk about as we don’t have a lot in common, you being a tree and such. But I’m glad we’re in this together.
“Cheers, F.”
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I especially like this sweet note from an admirer of a golden elm.
“Dear 1037148,
“You deserve to be known by more than a number. I love you. Always and forever.”
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Like Tree-No.1037148-Hugger, I have loved always and forever many trees in my life. If they had their own email addresses, here are some notes I would like to send them.
Dear Evergreen Beside My Boyhood Home Driveway,
Do you remember when I was small how I used to pretend you were a basketball defender and I would hoist shots over you with all my little-boy might? I imagine you are so tall now there is not a shooter alive whose shot you cannot block!
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Dear My Favorite Majestic Tree in Ojai’s Libbey Park,
Thank you for the cool shade you have provided me over the decades during the Ojai Tennis Tournament.
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Dear Mariposa Grove Sequoia Sempervirens,
I had never before seen trees like you / Tall as skyscrapers from a sidewalk’s view
Oxygen you give and my breath you take / Awesomeness like thee only God could make
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Dear “Two Trees”,
Thank you, thank you for your aesthetic beauty and for holding vigilant twin sentinel over Ventura.
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Dear Mighty Oak In My Grade School Friend Jim’s Backyard,
Thank you for so perfectly holding up the best tree house I have ever been in.
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Dear Birch In My Front Yard,
You stand a little bent and crooked, like an elderly woman in need of a cane, and yet you are still lovely and strong and I love the way your leaves filter the evening sunlight before it comes through the window. I look forward to hearing the wind play celestial symphonies on your downward branches for decades to come.
With love,
Woody
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