{"id":4667,"date":"2012-12-26T20:47:38","date_gmt":"2012-12-27T01:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.silkentent.com\/Trees\/?p=4667"},"modified":"2012-12-27T13:09:19","modified_gmt":"2012-12-27T18:09:19","slug":"the-wise-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.silkentent.com\/Trees\/?p=4667","title":{"rendered":"The Wise Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"

December 26, 2012<\/strong><\/span>
\nWednesday<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe Feast of Stephen<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

All the complicated details<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
of the attiring and<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
the disattiring are completed!<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
A liquid moon<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
moves gently among<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
the long branches.<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
Thus having prepared their buds<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
against a sure winter<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
the wise trees<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
stand sleeping in the cold.
\n<\/em>— William Carlos Williams, 1883-1963
\nAmerican\u00c2\u00a0physician and poet<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

Today, I take up once again a practice<\/a> I adopted on this day last year, and then let drop.\u00c2\u00a0I get a Poem-A-Day<\/a> in an\u00c2\u00a0email every morning from the Academy of American Poets. Most days I read it,\u00c2\u00a0but some\u00c2\u00a0days I don’t, and I haven’t been keeping track.<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

I was up this morning before 5:15. I needed to be at church by 7:00 to help clear the pews of hymnals, contact cards, pencils, and other stuff people leave behind, so that work crews can get busy on installing new upholstery and refinishing the wood. It’s the 25th anniversary of the\u00c2\u00a0beginning of the congregation, the 20th anniversary of the building. A\u00c2\u00a0lot of scratches, wax droplets, and juice box stains can accrue\u00c2\u00a0with that much use.<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

So I went out this morning, on the Feast of Stephen. The snow that fell\u00c2\u00a0yesterday and\u00c2\u00a0gave\u00c2\u00a0a picturesque quality to the landscape had mostly melted, but the air was clear and the hour hushed. For many years I have begun my new year on this date, which was my father’s birthday. He’d be 96 now, my mother 101.<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

I had my C&C, charted my course for the next few days. This is liminal space, a time between times, a time to disengage from all the complicated details of\u00c2\u00a0rockin’ around the Christmas tree and\u00c2\u00a0move back into all the complicated details of the work we must be about.\u00c2\u00a0Before I left for church, I took this picture of the wise trees that stand sentry at my comings and my goings.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\"002\"
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