1 poem
Pulsing at the Rate of Tree: an extract
less insulation fence than
fibrous inter-wirings,
not enwrappings but
vantage mappings sent-
encing itself to a defence
an oak so accused of
its own currents, won’t
be filtered by anything
that parts own penetration,
own response-weepage
the current not conveying
nutriment but alarm-pricks
from its stuffs waylaid
for unshared food
electric pulses don’t
soar but must be passed
through every internal
flight-path of tree
a tree’s circuit-breakers
punctuate lifetime
fusings of root,
branch and leaf
the respond-pump is
tannins put grief into
leaf for its eaters
one tall caterpillar a
leaf, induce phero-
mones, attract a
parasitic wasp, attack
at altitude
trees are conducting
plants, trim a modu-
lation specific to a
lately rescored
signalling
calcium signalling
is open-mouthed
electrogenic trans-
particles sign on at a
tree’s furthest, sheer-
est reserves (rewards)
information tempered along
cable (expressive differential
an ion at a time) plays to
a whole scale of
effector tissue
any resting membrane
settles at its
proton import
a wound is interior communication
ferrying own continuation-
zone, leaf-prone outworks
tarry but tingle with mapped
bites insect-detecting
along strata of secondary
xylem as a spine does
scare a neuron, cells
ring entire circuit of tree
inciting its bells, the
hourly inch into tree-
emergency, ungutted,
unrutted
up cellular wires from
outer drooping, leaf-
smart sets out across
the mid-lengths of the
rate for pacing
a prayer speck without
wrangling a spark’s
momentum, the tree’s
echoey techno-net
roots crackle a brain-
bed of uncentered
elision, re-entered
collision, rededicate
a collusion of
planes and pulses
any circuit across
cellulose is attributory,
craning a neck-piece,
the contact-info
englobing a tree-tape
knowing its hurt
shift electric-solemn
finds its own
parsing fork,
branchings of talk
and tell
slow at signal to
appease own message
but as pathway
unstunted
tree-core won’t have
fled while it remains
signal-to-path
fed
afferent rhythms
filling in at current,
not uncoiling the tree
grading insect shock
to electric shock onto
solitudes of oak foliage
the way trees hurt themselves
upon world, injury charges them
slender particles blurting the
fungi cravings (contributions)
of repair-replenishment
treeing is partial discharge,
stress at insulation branches
electrical treeing from
field stress to smallest
coupled regions rating/
creating fresh protocols
of reverse-insult
avoiding primary
breakdown has a
current rolling/slicing
its bushings, branches by
spike, whole vented trees
between any unit oak
and its indicators, this
is bridge-response,
electrodes phase-resolved
a calibration poise
distinct from the tree’s
own internal noise
microvolts as in
macro-vows resonating
layout, a branch-hum’s
defensive brief, amending
the taste of leaf
an initiation into danger
does crowd the cell-wire,
is imitated across interior
duration but no trees
were aged by it, the range
of tempi punctuates their
curative mask
density or satiety of
times under the bark, but
nodes are everywhere
high-tension prayer
no more accelerative than
a tree’s semi-inert
cabling, alert at each
signal border, transmitting
the rescue pulse (resting
place) according to
each burden
generates at the take
of tree, limps in the
wake of exact bodies
for injury: trace it
through the xylem
as a lamp above, below
the glow is the harboured
electron-tracery of tree
arboreal stores pulsate
the longest ways
they go
heavy relay
fleeting as
early avowal
Peter Larkin contributed to The Ground Aslant: an Anthology of Radical Landscape Poetry, ed. Harriet Tarlo (2011). Among his more recent poetry collections are Trees Before Abstinent Ground (Shearsman, 2019) and Encroach to Resume (Shearsman, 2021).