HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/22/2025 cc Rosten (One Tree - Poetry Town)
Emily <
To:Colunga-Lopez, Andrea
Subject:Poetry Town | Philip Metres
Good morning Andrea,
I thought this would be a fun poem for the Tree Committee.
Thanks,
Emily
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Welcome to poet George Bilgere’s
online newsletter. Every day
George selects a poem by a writer
he’s crazy about and he says a
few words about why he picked it.
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Here’s a poem for today, July 22, 2025
One Tree
by Philip Metres
…They wanted to tear down the tulip tree, our neighbors, last year. It throws a shadow over
their vegetable patch, the only tree in our backyard. We said no. Now they’ve hired
someone to chainsaw an arm—the crux on our side of the fence—and my wife, in tousled
hair and morning sweat, marches to stop the carnage, mid-limb. It reminds her of her
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childhood home, a shady place to hide. She recites her litany of no, returns. Minutes later,
the neighbors emerge. The worker points to our unblinded window. I want to say, it’s not
me, slide out of view behind a wall of cupboards, ominous breakfast table, steam of tea, our
two young daughters now alone. I want no trouble. Must I fight for my wife’s desire for
yellow blooms when my neighbors’ tomatoes will stunt and blight in shade? Always the
same story: two people, one tree, not enough land or light or love. Like the baby brought to
Solomon, someone must give. Dear neighbor, it’s not me. Bloom-shadowed, light-
deprived, they lower the chainsaw again.
__________
From Philip Metres’s recent collection Fugitive/Refuge, Copper Canyon Press, 2024.
Photograph: Tree cut in half in neighbor row over driveway pigeon poo, Sheffield, UK. A fellow
neighbor commented, “It looks awful.… We’ve got a war on our hands with them two.” BBC.
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Why I Chose This Poem
From this little parable—I want one thing, my
neighbor wants another—arises all of human
history.
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Pick of the Week
Every Monday George picks one of his own poems
from the Poetry Foundation | Poetry Magazine
archives. This week you can read George’s poem
“Corned Beef and Cabbage” from his collection
Haywire.
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Tune in to Wordplay, the weekly
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George Bilgere and John Donoghue.
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it as “the Car Talk of poetry.”
Books by George Bilgere
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2023 Rattle Chapbook Prize
Central Air Imperial
Winner
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Cheap Motels of
My Youth
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