06

Seventy, and still planting trees…

Don’t laugh at me, my friends.

Of course I know I’m going to die. 

I also know 

I’m not dead yet.


— Yuan Mei, translated by JP Seaton, from I Don't Bow to Buddhas: Selected Poems of Yuan Mei, Copper Canyon Press

Thank you for calling The Botanarchy Hotline. The Botanarchy Hotline is medicine disguised as a poem delivered through the portal of your phone. It’s a ham-radio séance between you and the living Earth, for those ready to be bewildered back to life.

The transmission at the end of your telephone line is Episode 6: Resisting Tyranny With The Oak Trees. It’s the 10th week of Spring, the yang exuberance of the sun extends wantonly in all directions like the most egregious manspreader, and today we’re gonna get a lesson in resisting the tyranny of productivity from our comrade the oak tree.

But first! It’s Taoist story time. Find the finest patch of sunlight to recline in, lounge like the most luxurious bookstore cat, and nuzzle up to your receiver real close for a bardic transmission from Chuang Tzu: The Useless Tree. This one’s from my favorite living translator, David Hinton, in his book Chuang Tzu: The Inner Chapters. You ready? Here we go.