Track created using Novation Circuit Monostation, through 4MS Dual Looping Delay. 2 channels of Eventide Blackhole reverb & RadioShack CTR-111 tape recorder. Voice is me reading “For the Love of trees”, a poem by Evelyn Ripp.

For the Love of Tree’s

In my mind’s eyes
My far-off forest world
Comes vividly to life,
And again I hide.
The trees know
Why I’m here,
They nod their heads
As they watch over me.

They speak to me and they listen.
I tell them all that I’m thinking
And they keep my secrets.
And they groan and they weep.
Now and then a tree shakes
Frightened by a bad dream.
They’re even capable of suffering.

Trees are self sufficient:
They adapt to every environment,
Bend in the wind and
Stand upright again,
And they regenerate themselves
With every spring.
Yet, something about them
Speaks sadly to me.
They can’t respond to assault —
Fight, or run for life.
it’s as though they opt
To stay dug insideWhere they grew up,
Tied to their roots
Within their native land.

I can still see the forest,
Though it is gone.
It had been harvested —
Cut down.
A new generation of spindly
Saplings sprung up in its place.
They don’t cast shadows yet.
Will they perpetuate the traits
of those distinctive Old Trees?

My deeply heartfelt thanks to you,
Dear Old Trees of righteousness,
Givers of life and sustenance.
For two long years we sat together
Beneath wnter blizzards,
Torrential downpours
As the sky disappeared
Under flashes of lightning
And thunderbolts
Or winds so intense
Sending huge tree trunks crashing.

Without you
Survival was impossible.
And even now,
A longing breaks my heart.

For the Love of Trees
Evenlyn Romanowsky Ripp
The Abandoned, A Life Apart from Life
pp. 157 – 158