Lone tree in the Lava beds near Medicine Lake, California.
The flowing water makes the still mountain move;
the vivid trees make the obdurate stone alive.
– Shitao
I am making a mental note to do a post about yesterdays outing to the Lava Beds and Glass Mountain. The barren landscape holds exquisite depth and aliveness which this poem encapsulates so well.
This reminds me of the “widow trees” left behind after a mass felling of timber (US lumber). Usually some trees are left standing to shelter the newly planted saplings from the prevailing wind. However some of them fall with the passage of time leaving lone trees to bear witness to their (arboreal) past.
They ain’t just trees, they have personalities and a story to tell.
Out there among the rubble, that is this lave field, I wondered at this solitary tree reaching down and finding water to sustain it. Like the grass growing up through the pavement on a city street.