Image by Sven Lachmann from Pixabay
Publication Date: November 2024
Location: PoetsOnline, specifically the ways of looking section of the Archive.
Genesis: This is piece was not entirely written specifically for the PoetsOnline prompt. As alluded to in the title, this is the third version. Earlier this year, I followed the advice of Caroline Bird and kept writing roots stanzas well beyond the point where I thought it was ‘finished’ and ended up with two versions I liked.
I think this is the final version, at least for now. I ditched one stanza entirely which I just don’t like; I reworked one; and the stanza about the oak tree is brand new.
They say that roots don’t tunnel alone,
as we once thought, but are entangled
in a greedy, nourishing, cooperative, complex
mesh of mycelium, other roots, and more
mycelium. Every mighty oak, every wood
anemone, a node in the wood-wide web.
They say that the root system of an oak—
say, the 900-year-old beauty down on the banks
of the North Tyne river—
mirrors the tree we see towering over us;
as above, so below.
They say that ginger is a healer—
a medicine plant, if you will—
yet it has also made itself quite comfortable
in a box of chocolates proffered
on that not-so-special occasion.
They say there are several thousand distinct types
of potato in the world.
That you can name six, seven at most, is indicative
of yet another way in which we have
impoverished ourselves
in our rush to feel ever richer.
Witches say that a mandrake will scream
as he’s wrenched out and uprooted from the
rich, dark Earth; and if any human
should hear such a scream without adequate protection,
then they will immediately die.
They say that Korean ginseng
is ‘good for men’s health’ (by which they mean
it makes men hard and virile). Ginseng grown
elsewhere in the world is just not as potent.
The soil is not the same.
They say that if you take the time to listen,
in the right season, you can hear rhubarb grow;
the crackling of the stems growing upwards,
the tearing sound of the roots
growing from their tips
beneath your feet.