Poem of the Week

How the Field Guide Got it Wrong
July 19, 2008

The field guide says they have
cinnamon colored bark and,
if you have a limited knowledge
of the spice drawer, I agree.
But the book does not mention
how the morning light washes
them in shades of honey,
or how the fading sun sets
them black as coffee grounds
against a rose petal sky.
Yes, cinnamon is sweet,
but on some afternoons the
bark of the Ponderosa is
sweetened with brown sugar,
and in the evening they
are dusted with bitter saffron.

The field guide says the bark
resembles a jigsaw puzzle,
and I can easily see the hand
carefully assembling each tree,
but this metaphor, too, feels
incomplete. Some element is
missing – something elemental.
Those are veins I see, not cracks,
feeding a beating heart. Those
are scales I see, not puzzle pieces –
the scales of an ancient creature,
primordial, who left the seas
to stand tall here, in these hills,
embracing sky and sunshine
and the possibilities of
cinnamon sweetened light.