Uplifting: House Held Up by Trees by Ted Kooser
WHEN IT WAS NEW, THE HOUSE STOOD ALONE ON A BARE SQUARE OF YARD.
THERE WAS A NEWLY-PLANTED LAWN AROUND IT, BUT NOT A SINGLE TREE TO GIVE IT SHADE.
Into the little white frame house comes a family, a boy and girl and their father, who comes home every afternoon to care for his children and his lawn. In the warm months he mows his perfect grass weekly, and between mowings, relentlessly roots out any small seedlings from the surrounding woods crowded with maples and oaks and ash trees. The children prefer the woods for their play, seeking out the cool shade and making hideouts under the leafy undergrowth.
But time goes by. The trees continue their ancient cycle, blooming in the spring with a thousand tiny flowers, sending their winged seeds and acorns out on the winds of fall. As children do, the boy and girl grow up and move away from the little house, For years the father remains alone, keeping his perfect lawn clear of the relentless sprouts of young trees. And then as more time passes, he wearies of caring for the house and keeping the perfect yard and moves away to be near the children, leaving a For Sale sign and his two little lawn chairs behind on his lawn.
BUT TREES ARE NOT EASILY DISCOURAGED.
And as seasons go by, that perfect lawn becomes part of the woodland. The trees crowd closer and closer to the little house as it falls into disrepair, sending their roots into the foundation and their limbs through the broken windows until it becomes almost one with them.
AND AS THEY GREW, THEY HELD IT TOGETHER AS IF IT WAS A BIRD'S NEST IN THE FINGERS OF THEIR BRANCHES.
AND VERY GRADUALLY, THE GROWING TREES BEGAN TO LIFT THE HOUSE OFF ITS FOUNDATION.
THE TREES LIFTED IT AND LIFTED IT--LIKE A TREE HOUSE, A HOUSE IN THE TREES.
The opening of Pulitzer-winning poet Ted Kooser's House Held Up by Trees
Kooser's benevolent point of view is supported, like the little house, by the understated but lovely illustrations of Jon Klassen, whose soft palette and gentle line here is a far cry from his own ironically witty, award-winning picture books, I Want My Hat Back
House Held Up by Trees
Labels: Houses--Fiction (Grades K-3), Nature Stories, Trees--Fuction
1 Comments:
Recently also bought an apartment, thanks to the Canning Town Estate Agents everything went without problems, excellent service, I recommend.
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Hanna, at 4:52 AM
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