Vox Populi
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Chard deNiord: Tree of Wisdom
I am taken in by its stand and breadth, marveling at its brawn and reach of branches, studying each leaf like the page of a sacred book, embracing its trunk like a void. I hear the prophecy of a lark in the density of foliage: "The vision awaits its time; hastens to the end." Until this time arrives, I am content to sit and stare and climb. I am compelled to bet my life on the fact that this is the first work of revelation, calling a tree tree and leaves leaves. It is the good work of a scientist. It is the hidden work of a common man. I say its name like the bird who can't stop singing, Ten Thousand Things In One, and then this prayer, Om mani padme hum. The jewel is in the world. I lie in the shade of its canopy and listen to the genius above deny her name. I turn its green to black in order to turn it back again. I watch its fruit fall in the wind like proofs for a law that only exists in the mind. Like a well-stocked house it sustains me, cleans my lungs with the distillation. It is my home of transformation where I remain and disappear.
Chard deNiord’s many books include In My Unknowing (Pitt, 2020). He is the former Poet Laureate of Vermont (2015-2019).
Vox Populi 
I love how the poem endsâ¨
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Om Mani Padme Hum
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Om Mani Padme Hum
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Lovely, lovely, lovely. All the way through . . . thank you, and, yes, the little bits above, are among the best. Agreed.
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Half prayer, half poem (if those can be separated in a sense) and so lyrical… lovely.
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Well-said. Thank you!
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“…It is the good work of a scientist.
It is the hidden work of a common man.
I say its name like the bird who can’t stop singing,
Ten Thousand Things In One…”
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Great lines! Thanks, Laure-Anne.
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Thanks for this!
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