When You Give a Tree an Email Address #NaPoWriMo18 #NPM2018

Alex Tree

When you give a tree an email address, expect love letters
Paeans to its radiant beauty, long limbs, strength, and shade,
Polite inquiries into its health, best wishes for long life.

This poem is a sijo, a Korean form I was introduced to in a poem by Ms. Chiubooka Writes. A sijo is a three-line poem of 44-46 syllables, divided among three lines with 14-16 syllables in each line. The first line introduces the situation, the second line develops it, and the third line introduces a twist and resolution. Each line is also supposed to include some kind of break, closer to the halfway mark than I’ve managed here.

The idea for this poem (as well as some of its language) comes from a wonderful article by Adrienne LaFrance about a program in Melbourne, Australia, where urban trees are assigned numbers and email addresses so that residents can share concerns about the health of their favorite trees. The unexpected consequence of giving trees email addresses was fan mail.

national poetry writing month 2018

Posted

April 6, 2018

NaPoWriMo, poems, writing

Elisabeth Ellington

Tags:

#napowrimo18, daily poem challenge, national poetry month, poem writing month

Comments

14 responses to “When You Give a Tree an Email Address #NaPoWriMo18 #NPM2018”

S. Bishop

April 6, 2018

Unique idea for a poem. Thanks for sharing and explaining how the form works. I might have to give this a try.

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1. Elisabeth Ellington
  
  April 7, 2018
  
  I enjoyed trying out the form. Let me know if you experiment with it. Thanks for commenting!
  
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mschiubookawrites

April 6, 2018

Yay to Sijos! You have lovely language full of alliteration and a new word (paeans) to add to my vocabulary. The topic is cool and quirky. You are inspiring me to write my very own sijo.

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1. Elisabeth Ellington
  
  April 7, 2018
  
  They’re hard! I started out thinking oh, nice, look at all these syllables I get to play with, this is going to be so much easier than a haiku or tanka. HA! I am going to try to write more because I think it’s an interesting form and that break in the middle is really tricky!
  
  Reply
  1. mschiubookawrites
    
    April 8, 2018
    
    I need to research the break in the middle, as well as what a tanka is! Thank you for teaching me something new.
Glenda M. Funk

April 7, 2018

I love the idea of taking care of trees by treating them like humans w/ email. Your poem is fun. I’m trying to remember the children’s book that begins “When you give a…” I’m sure you know it. I’m making a list of the poem forms I want to try.

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1. Elisabeth Ellington
  
  April 7, 2018
  
  Yes, I was thinking about “When you give a mouse a cookie” and originally planned a longer lighthearted accumulative poem in that vein. But then decided this topic worked pretty well for an attempt at sijo. I wish I knew more about poetic forms. I think it’s time to buy a book!
  
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Akilah

April 7, 2018

Fan mail for trees = adorable.

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1. Elisabeth Ellington
  
  April 7, 2018
  
  Isn’t it? I LOVE the article this is based on. Now I just wish I could read more of the letters. They should be collected into a book. That’s just the kind of thing I’d have to buy.
  
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  1. Akilah
    
    April 7, 2018
    
    I know, it just opens up so many questions. Which tree gets the most fan mail? What concerns, joys, etc. do the people writing the trees write about? Will people visit more because the tree is *their* tree? I mean, there’s just so much!
Amanda Potts

April 7, 2018

I like the form and I love the inspiration. That article (and the emails) may make me smile for days. Wonder what objects I could write emails to? Hmmmm…..

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1. Elisabeth Ellington
  
  April 7, 2018
  
  I feel the same way about the article and the emails. Absolute delight! I love to imagine the city workers opening these emails and finding such personal words rather than the tree condition reports they were no doubt expecting. And I’m so curious about the person who decided to write back and answer some of the emails. Priceless!
  
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carwilc

April 7, 2018

I have never heard of a sijo. Maybe a form I will try this month (but it sounds almost as hard as a golden shovel!) I love the idea of giving a tree an email address. Kind of crazy!

Reply
1. Elisabeth Ellington
  
  April 7, 2018
  
  Not a form I’d ever heard of before either. It was actually a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I am constantly picking forms because they sound easy to me and then I get into the middle of it and I’m like, ARGH! I definitely have the golden shovel on my list to try this month, but I am writing a SHORT one. I can’t imagine a whole month of them!!
  
  Reply