If Time Is a Tree
In ‘The Monkey Heart’, Diane Tucker offers an evocative meditation on the journey of artistic creation. This lovely prose poem appears in Issue 3, Summer 2014, and we are delighted to share its opening notes with you here.
The Monkey Heart
by Diane Tucker
I ask that you imagine (I know you can – everyone can imagine) time as a tree. The poet, poor monkey, wants to climb to the top and get the best view: beyond time, far from time, the mountains and valleys of eternity that make the giant oak of time seem a blade of grass.
And to see beyond the tree (I can’t help falling into my metaphor like you can’t help needing your breakfast!), one must love the tree.
One must love every ant on its bark, every knothole, every scar of the ill-swung axe. Each leaf must be dear to you; you should cry snotty tears when it falls. Every green shoot appearing must be a cause for songs and wine far into the spring night.
To read the conclusion, pick up your copy of Issue 3, Summer 2014!
Triple threat Vancouver poet, novelist, and playwright Diane Tucker was shortlisted for the The League of Canadian Poets’ Gerald Lampert Memorial Award for her first book of poems, God on His Haunches. She has published three poetry books, God on His Haunches, Bright Scarves of Hours, and Bonsai Love, and a YA novel, His Sweet Favour. Her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and in more than sixty literary journals in Canada and abroad. Calgary’s Fire Exit Theatre produced her first full-length play, Here Breaks The Heart, in 2013.
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