COUNTRY LANDSCAPE NEAR FLORENCE, Circle of Giulio Parigi (1571-1635) 

TREE QUESTIONS 

How far does a tree see? 
Far enough to see Florence? 
Close enough to see the woodpecker 
just before clawing its skin?  

Or is it blind like a grub  
and feels its way through the day, 
as clouds unveil or cover the sun 
the wind disorienting it?  

What can the tree's idea of the sun be? 
Is a tree one or, like its leaves, many? 
With each fallen leaf, is self  
subtracted?  

Do its branches feel gravity differently? 
Are its flowers numb to it? 
Did the tree see the man with his sketchbook  
and smelled him?  

Did it, in its pollen way, make love to him? 

—Stefan Balan