Tree of Life
In 2017, inspired by the Walt Whitman poem below, we honored our Indiegogo supporters with an art installation: a bespoke installation of an oak tree decked out in leaves inscribed with their names.
Receive your own leaf—in your name, the name of your favorite poet, or a memorial gift in honor of a loved one—with your year-end tax-deductible contribution of $250 or more.
I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing
I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
All alone stood it and the moss hung down from the branches,
Without any companion it grew there uttering joyous leaves of dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself,
But I wonder’d how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there without its friend near, for I knew I could not,
And I broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it, and twined around it a little moss,
And brought it away, and I have placed it in sight in my room,
It is not needed to remind me as of my own dear friends,
(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them,)
Yet it remains to me a curious token, it makes me think of manly love;
For all that, and though the live-oak glistens there in Louisiana solitary in a wide flat space,
Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a friend or lover near,
I know very well I could not.
—Walt Whitman
Poetry Barn is a fiscally-sponsored project of AIM Higher Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity, making your gift tax-deductible to the fullest extent permitted by law.
Our tree was designed by AnneLouise Burns, of Pawling, NY. Click on any image to see the tree-making process.
