Words and Ash Trees
poems, puppets and reflections
on the woodlands of Buxton
We are the trees
Who shed slim grey dresses
For coats of green and brown and lichen,
Who comb the air,
Who dance in the wind,
Who grow hope from seedlings.
(From We are the Trees)
Gathering responses, back in 2020 as various waves of lockdown tripped up public events and hands on workshops, Stone and Water and Creeping Toad took all those words and shook them up in a word-blender (like a food-mixer but with a stronger dictionary-drive). As the summer went on, we also gathered pictures from visitors to the woodlands of Buxton (thanks to Buxton Civic Association for all their work keeping our woods open, accessible and beautiful)... eventually all this grew into a pair of poems: "We are the People" and "We are the Trees". Then those pictures on cloth and paper grew shoots and faces and became a pair of tall trees with the help of visitors, Two Left Hands and our Stone and Water team
Our Tree People have gone on to have their own adventures...
- 2020: sprouted full grown from the fresh shoots of wild imaginations
- 2020: filmed by OffTheFence for the CelebrationEarth! project
- 2022: featured in Treasuring Trees: celebrating the trees of Derbyshire at Buxton Museum and Art Gallery
- 2022: guest appearance in the Nairn Books and Arts Festival
- The poems themselves have also been recited in story performances, used in ceremonies, and been hung on trees to provoke thoughts on woodland wanders
Now, as their leaves begin to fall, it felt like a good time to celebrate our Tall Trees and the poems associated with them
- Download the full poems, here
- Watch We are the Trees, here
- Find out more about BCA and Buxton's woodlands, here
- And visit Stone and Water's website: https://stoneandwaterblog.wordpress.com/about/ash-keys/
We are the people
Who walked,
Who wondered,
Who laughed,
Who talked,
Who held hands,
Who strolled,
Who held their hearts and loves and hopes
Under Ash trees.
(from We are the People)
with many thanks to all the members of the public who added to our collections of words, phrases, thoughts and images, to the makers, painter, wild imaginers and reckless puppeteers and to James Lampard for wonderful saxophone playing to wake our puppets, 'way back when
