Aspens Poem by gershon hepner

Aspens doing something in the wind
give problems when you’re searching for mots justes;
I’ve tried to do so often and I’ve sinned,
by imprecision readily seduced.
Finding the right phrases for the trees
that glitter in the wind is only granted
to those whose minds are blown when there’s a breeze
refreshing them when they feel disenchanted.


Inspired by a poem by Robert Hass in the New Yorker, June 27,2005:

The Problem of Describing Trees

The aspen glitters in the wind.
And that delights us.

The leaf flutters, turning,
Because that motion in the heat of summer
Protects its cells from dying out. Likewise the leaf
Of the cottonwood.

The gene pool threw up a wobbly stem
And the tree danced. No.
The tree capitalized.
No. There are limits to saying,
In language, what the tree did.

It is good sometimes for poetry to disenchant us.

Dance with me, dancer. Oh, I will.
Aspens doing something in the wind.