Phase One - the Burr Oak’s Story

After three windy mornings of sitting with my oil paints and canvas on an old licheny tree fort platform, I feel that I've been given a vision of the world of this ancient Burr Oak. Older than Manotick, the rural village that is aptly called "Jewel on the Rideau", this Oak has leafed out each spring for over two hundred years, in the wind that blows free over woods and fields south west of the village. The view that it shared with me here is planned to be filled in a very short time with the roofs of houses.

This old Burr Oak, forest-edge fort for generations of children and witness of the history of Manotick is slated for destruction along with three other ancient Oaks and groves of venerable Hickorys and Basswoods.

In respect for the history they have participated in and the biodiversity they help to maintain, these trees must continue to live, with their home intact and enough of the field to give them breathing space. A natural treasure for present and future residents of Manotick.

For more information on Manotick's battle to save the rural character of their village, see

http://www.ourmanotick.ca/

I have finally finished up my poem, conceived in bits while painting high up on the tree fort platform in the old Burr Oak:

The Burr Oak's Story

Is two hundred years old if you're a tree?

Is there enough respect for the elder
To make us pause and consider
In our headlong rush to develop the younger?

Venerable Oak,
The Springtails in the soil about your roots
(and in the hedgerows that bound the field
that has been here for perhaps a hundred years)
- the Springtails
Are each short lived
But of ancient lineage.

Ancient tree,
This is our community.
They call it Biodiversity,
Praising it with words,
Pledging allegiance, then turning around
To pay their friends to pave it over
(you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, and together
we'll lose our heritage)

The platform of boards is lichened,
The bark of your broad limbs is scuffed by generations
Of tree climbers
Finding lofty solitude, leafy refuge,
A place to share secrets
Sandwiches
Songs
Listen to songs of birds and frogs
In the woods around,
Peek out between high branches
To watch the seasons change as the wind
Blows clean across the field... is it hay this year
Or corn?

I the Painter
Share with those generations of tree climbers a sense
Of the life beneath your rugged bark and wonder
About communities,
How long it takes to develop balance and trust.

A tree will grow where it can find roothold
In a space among its neighbours,
But if too much ground is broken
Too fast,
Without respect for stability
Of community,
Then balance is lost.
Everything changes
In ways that the bulldozer
Can't predict or imagine.

Elder of Oaks, teach us
As we face global uncertainties
To check our balance,
Listen to the rustle of your leaves,
Feel history in your bark, and
Tread with respect over the intertwined roots
That give this community its character
Its intertwined relationships
Of historic diversity.

A. Karstad
4 June 2008

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Phase One - the Burr Oak’s Story

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