Five years ago, on March 18, my wife called and said I needed to come home, that Governor Newsom had declared a quarantine in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Confused and worried, I biked her way immediately. The next day, the first of our many sequestered days, I had an idea. Across the street from where I live on Bay Farm is a parklet, and along the sidewalk that borders the grass are five young trees. Inspired by the old ad campaign for Burma Shave, where jingles were posted on the sides of roads, and by Orlando having posted poems in trees declaring his love for Rosalind in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, I wrote a simple bit of verse in five parts and attached it to the upper trunks. Going out for walks was seemingly the only thing allowed; many people strolled through the park to see the lagoons, so I was offering a little something extra.
I wrote another poem the next day, simple, no more than a sentence on each piece of paper, commenting on what we were going through, trying to be supportive and encouraging. The day after that I did the same. Right away people were leaving me notes saying thanks, sometimes tucked behind the cardboard placards that I’d strung to the trees, sometimes in chalk on the ground. Someone left a $5 bill making me a bonafide paid poet. As the days rolled on I began to branch out (sorry) and write on various things- the local flora and fauna, what my cat was up to, whatever rose up in my mind that morning. Eventually, I posted a poem 870 days in a row. Mostly mine, but I invited others too- local poets, my kids, friends, people I met on Instagram where I was sharing my verse. The response from readers local and far away was heartwarming and flattering. After an article was printed in the SF Chronicle by Tony Bravo, people around town began to recognize me as the tree poet. They were so very kind in their comments.
Eventually I throttled back to a new poem every few days until eventually, as of today, I’ve posted 1,249 poems. This coming March 19 is the fifth anniversary of my project and I’m taking the moment to pause, maybe move on to other things. But I wanted to share what this has been like, what it has meant to me, and from what others have shared, what it meant to them. Five years ago we were so terrified — no vaccine, no clear understanding of what was happening, the news was horrible to watch, stories of friends and family who’d gotten Covid and died became common. And being housebound for safety’s sake, while necessary, was not normal. We needed each other, we still need each other.
Over the five years of exploring poetry in this small format, sometimes five words, sometimes just pictures drawn in crayon, I learned about myself and about who we are. Such kindness, such shared needs, so many ways we celebrate together as a community. I’m writing this to say farewell to the five trees — I hugged each one recently to say thanks — and to thank all of you in this beautiful town. It has been a privilege to have helped out, in a small way, with only a few words, as we struggled back then. I leave you with one of the first poems, posted on May 15, 2020. If you’d like to go back and read the others, they are on Instagram @fivetreepoem.
Gene Kahane is the founder of the Foodbank Players, a lifelong teacher, and former Poet Laureate for the City of Alameda. Reach him at [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Gene-Kahane.
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