Listening to Trees: American Basswoods

In listening to various trees, I discovered that every species is so dissimilar from the others that the word “tree” is too general to describe these beings.  The Basswoods acted as a community while the Tulip Poplar stood tall by Herself.  Meanwhile the local Scarlet Oaks did not regard Themselves as Kings of the Forest, but preferred to play with everyone instead.

The American Basswoods (Tilia americana, Linden Family) live near the railroad tracks behind my condo building.  They all wanted to speak to me but only the Younger Brother was in a place where I could safely go.  The Basswoods asked me to greet all of them, which I complied by touching their leaves.  (The Basswood Community, for some reason, felt male, both separately and together.) Standing together, these trees formed a shady bower with their curved trunks and branches.  While I stood in the bower that the trees formed, I could hear music.  The Basswoods were singing, in various harmonies, the pop music of Barry Manilow (American, 1943 - ).  The choral singing of these trees reminded me that I could be an individual within a unified whole, since the Basswoods, Themselves, were a community who relied on each other.