THE FOREST DREAM

oil and asphaltum on board
72" x 36"
SOLD

“I am looking at trees
they may be one of the things I will miss
most from the earth
though many of the ones I have seen
already I cannot remember
and though I seldom embrace the ones I see
and have never been able to speak
with one
I listen to them tenderly
their names have never touched them
they have stood round my sleep
and when it was forbidden to climb them
they have carried me in their branches”

– Trees by W. S. Merwin

W. S. Merwin was a poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winning author and poet who lived many years in blissful near-solitude on the island of Maui, the same place that I was born and still live. He was an ardent conservationist, with a love of fauna, in particular trees, which were subject of several of his works. He recently passed away in his sleep at his home near Haiku-Pauwela. His body is gone, but his works continue to live on in paper and ink and minds and hearts.