Today's Little Ditty

Samuele Di Blasi

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore"

(Oscar winner for best animated short 2012)

Written by William Joyce

Directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad3CMri3hOs

Thank you for coming along on my Filling the Well journey for National Poetry Month. I've appreciated the company, as well as all the comments, emails, and poems these posts inspired! I hope you are feeling refreshed and have found something beautiful, interesting, joyful, or curious to take with you. If you missed or would like to revisit any of this month's posts, you'll find them listed below. Browse through all of the Filling the Well posts from the last two years by clicking on "Filling the Well" in the sidebar list to the right.

Be well and be kind to yourself.

–Michelle

April 1: Michelle H. Barnes and Cosmo Sheldrake

April 2: Hans Christian Andersen

April 3: Guy Finley, Anneke van Giersbergen and Árstíðir

April 4: Joseph Campbell and Fabien Weibel

April 5: Salvador Dalí and Pilobolus

April 6: Jacob Nordby and Talking Animals

April 7: Aileen Fisher, XTC, and Takarazuka Ballet

April 8: Amit Ray and Yehuda Amichai

April 9: Frances Hodgson Burnett

April 10: Frank Lloyd Wright, Stéphane Grappelli, and Django Reinhardt

April 11: John Burroughs and Stunts Amazing

April 12: Beverly Cleary

April 13: Lee Bennett Hopkins and Judy Collins

April 14: X. J. Kennedy, Godfrey Reggio, Philip Glass, and Ron Fricke

April 15: Lucille Clifton, Anthony Howe, and Akeboshi

April 16: Donna Tartt and Micah

April 17: Kobayashi Issa

April 18: Yasunari Kawabata and Alexander Mercks

April 19: Marcus Aurelius, Odilon Redon, Garip Ay, and Vincent van Gogh

April 20: Shannon L. Alder, Randy Hilliker, and Marina and the Diamonds

April 21: Hayao Miyazaki and Huang Yi

April 22: Emily Dickinson and Louie Schwartzberg

April 23: William Shakespeare, Marc Colagiovanni, and Peter H. Reynolds

April 24: Victor Hugo and Eugène Carrière

April 25: Romain Rolland, Georges Lemmen, NASA, and The Jive Aces

April 26: Edith Wharton and Valérian Desterne

April 27: Rumi and Paul Smith

April 28: Nellie Bly, Pufferfish, and Danny Macaskill

April 29: Jennifer Clement, Henry Cuyler Bunner, and Tori Amos

April 30: Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Joyce, and Brandon Oldenburg

Simon Marussi

Remember

the tree is older than you are

and you might find stories

in its branches.

– Jennifer Clement, from "Lemon Tree"

Today is Poem in Your Pocket Day. Since it is Arbor Day as well, I've chosen "Lemon Tree" as my #PocketPoem. You can find it in its entirety HERE.

The Arbor Day Foundation is celebrating 50 years of planting and distributing nearly 500 million trees to more than 50 countries around the world.

The Heart of the Tree

– Henry Cuyler Bunner (1855-1896)

What does he plant who plants a tree?
  He plants a friend of sun and sky; 
He plants the flag of breezes free; 
The shaft of beauty, towering high; 
He plants a home to heaven anigh; 
     For song and mother-croon of bird 
     In hushed and happy twilight heard— 
The treble of heaven's harmony— 
These things he plants who plants a tree.

What does he plant who plants a tree? 
He plants cool shade and tender rain,
 And seed and bud of days to be, 
And years that fade and flush again; 
     He plants the glory of the plain; 
     He plants the forest's heritage; 
     The harvest of a coming age; 
The joy that unborn eyes shall see— 
These things he plants who plants a tree.

What does he plant who plants a tree?
  He plants, in sap and leaf and wood, 
In love of home and loyalty 
And far-cast thought of civic good— 
His blessings on the neighborhood, 
     Who in the hollow of His hand 
           Holds all the growth of all our land— 
A nation's growth from sea to sea 
Stirs in his heart who plants a tree.

Tori Amos

"Speaking With Trees" from Ocean to Ocean

Tori Amos talks about "Speaking With Trees" HERE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6FKwCcpOgA

"How Trees Secretly Talk to Each Other in the Forest"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kHZ0a_6TxY