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| Alphonse Legros Death in a Pear Tree 1877 etching Yale University Art Gallery |
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| Wolfgang Tillmans Lutz & Alex sitting in the Trees 1992 C-print Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Bill Owens My Dad thinks it's a good idea to take all the leaves off the tree and rake up the yard I think he's crazy ca. 1972 gelatin silver print Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri |
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| Frederick Bloemaert after Abraham Bloemaert Boys climbing a Tree ca. 1630 engraving Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Sheva Fruitman Trim the Tree 1996 gelatin silver print Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Anonymous Photographer Three People in a Tree ca. 1910 gelatin silver print Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Athol Shmith Fashion Shot ca. 1950-60 gelatin silver print National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |
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| Frederick William Alexander de Fabeck Elephants beneath Banyan Tree, Assam, India ca. 1861 watercolor and gouache on paper Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Bowles & Carver (London) Hieroglyphics of a Christian ca. 1790-1800 hand-colored engraving British Museum |
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| Roger Brown Family Tree Mourning Print 1987 color woodcut Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin |
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| Henri Rousseau Avenue in Saint Cloud Park ca. 1908 oil on canvas Städel Museum, Frankfurt |
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| Anonymous British Printmaker The Royall Oake of Brittayne (satire against Oliver Cromwell) 1649 engraving Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Abdullah Frères (Turkey) L'Arbre de la Vièrge ca. 1880 albumen print Detroit Institute of Arts |
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| Lady Clementina Hawarden Clementina Maude Hawarden on the grounds of Dundrum House County Tipperary, Ireland ca. 1858-61 albumen print Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Lady Clementina Hawarden Clementina Maude Hawarden on the grounds of Dundrum House County Tipperary, Ireland ca. 1858-61 albumen print Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Blandford Fletcher The Old Beech Tree 1910 oil on canvas Manchester Art Gallery |
What You Have to Get Over
Stumps. Railroad tracks. Early sicknesses,
the blue ones, especially.
Your first love rounding a corner,
that snowy minefield.
Whether you step lightly or heavily,
you have to get over to that tree line a hundred yards in the distance
before evening falls,
letting no one see you wend your way,
that wonderful, old-fashioned word, wend,
meaning "to proceed, to journey,
to travel from one place to another,"
as from bed to breakfast, breakfast to imbecile work.
You have to get over your resentments,
the sun in the morning and the moon at night,
all those shadows of yourself you left behind
on odd little tables.
Tote that barge! Lift that bale! You have to
cross that river, jump that hedge, surmount that slogan,
crawl over this ego or that eros,
then hoist yourself up onto that yonder mountain.
Another old-fashioned word, yonder, meaning
"that indicated place, somewhere generally seen
or just beyond sight." If you would recover,
you have to get over the shattered autos in the backwoods lot
to that bridge in the darkness
where the sentinels stand
guarding the border with their half-slung rifles,
warned of the likes of you.
– Dick Allen (2010)