burying myself (again)

"Burying myself (again)" is a collection of letterpress printed Boxelder Maple (Acer Negundo) saplings, a native tree species in Canada and the US, often considered ‘invasive’ for its prolific self-seeding and ‘aggressive’ ability to thrive. Boxelders were once widely planted in shelterbelts in the Great Plains and elsewhere for erosion control. It now grows with abandon in my urban garden. So, I dig up some of the seedlings and print them with their roots still attached, later replanting them in the earth.

In 2022, shortly after I printed and replanted my first round of Boxelders, a gardener came by to clean up some leaves in our yard. In my absence, he took the initiative to weed my living box elder poems, which were neatly planted in a pot, surrounded by other potted plants. The texts were still quite legible on the sapling leaves, and (curiously) no other garden beds or pots were weeded. The Boxelders were printed with the text: “burying myself/ in the earth/ just for you/ to pull me out/ by my roots.” Indeed, one could argue that the gardener was simply following poetic instructions. I suppose I should stop writing self-fulfilling prophecies. But I took this ‘editing’ as a reminder to look closely, especially at the things we assume we already know. Sometimes even a seasoned gardener cannot see the poetry for the weeds. Eventually, I reprinted a fresh round of Boxelder seedlings, with a minor edit to the original text: “burying myself (again)”…