Photo Discussion
Category: Friendly Praise Archive

One Grand Walnut

	One Grand Walnut Some of you will recognize this tree. I've taken shots of it in all times of the day, in every season and all types of weather. a quick count reveals 31 versions on my website. To make a long story short someone else noticed, and wrote a poem about it. Her name is Shanna Wheeler. William C. Raco

....good morning Bill...how lovely and special...I tried to use the link you gave but it wouldnt work, so I googled the info. and this is what came up...:<)

One Grand Oak

For Louise Johnson

I left it, one grand oak now rooted deep
in my hundred acre alfalfa field.
I don't remember why—a spot of shade
in summer maybe—nothing to do with art.
But once every season, camera in hand,
a neighbor stands in the field, far enough
away to capture the perfect globe
of branches. He eyes the oak between shots
as if waiting for wind to flip the leaves
like the wings of restless birds, or the sun
to light the dense network like the burning bush.
He gave me a gift of three framed shots.
The oak in winter: an eerie nest, gray sky.
Decked in summer's greenery, the oak leans
in a yellow breeze. Harvest: now I see
the oak orange and round as a pumpkin.
My kitchen window frames the tree each day;
I never noticed till his watchful stance,
the camera lifted to his eye, and these
pictures of a tree always just a tree
firm in the field, left to burrow roots
and broaden branches skyward. Growth, I saw,
not grandiosity, my eyes on sprays
of cow's milk, my hands powdered with feed.
I've lived too close to the land, seeing use
and yield. I now look twice at eager sprouts
of alfalfa, each bony calf, each crooked
line of leg. My square-bodied cows are black
and white photographs. The strutting rooster
embodies sunset and autumn. My eyes:
a camera. All of it art—these acres,
these animals, the oak that nods to me.

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September 21, 2008

	One Grand Walnut - color version William C. Raco

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September 21, 2008