During the heatwave of July 2017, Ariel Gordon spent two days sitting on the patio of downtown Winnipeg’s Tallest Poppy, writing snippets of poems which she hung from the boulevard tree using paper and string. Passersby were invited to TreeTalk too — their secrets / one-liners / meditations / haiku were also hung from the tree. By the end of the weekend, the elm had a second temporary canopy of leaves: 234 poems, 111 written by Gordon, 107 written by passersby, and 16 from other sources.
Gordon has assembled all these voices into a long/found poem that asks: what does it mean to live in the urban forest? What does it mean to be in relationship with each other but also with the more-than-human? The book also includes pen and ink illustrations by Winnipeg artist Natalie Baird.
Shortlisted for the 2021 Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award at the MAnitoba Book Awards.
Shortlisted for the 2021 Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher at the MAnitoba Book Awards.
Shortlisted for a 2021 Manuela Dias Design Award at the MAnitoba Book Awards.