Words and Ash Trees

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)

Watching our woodscape change as ash dieback worked its way into the trees, we asked people if these woods were special to them and if so, why? We turned that question round and asked people to look at the world as the trees might.

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