A ballad for Franz Dolp

His exercise was forestry
His initiative was art.

He painted his forest in trees,
composing four seasons of song.

He searched his right balance of trees
revising rhythms for harmony’s poem,
Mothers of Deep Rich Women.

A writer of therapeutic forests
written in trees with good roots.

Franz was a poet
rebuilding with forests,
artisan trees
forming long-healing words.

Inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s story of Franz Dolp’s 40 acre reforesting homestead with Western red cedar trees, which, if I remember correctly, have a First Nation name that translates something like “maker, or mother, or mother-maker of rich women” because of their unusual domestic commodity value when cooperatively harvested and planted.