Trees An Anthology of Writings and Paintings

This elegant book reflects Mr. Hesse’s thoughts on a spiritual path for self-knowledge through a collection of his essays, poems, and passages on trees—trees in general and on individual ones in specific places—accompanied by twelve of his hand-painted watercolor illustrations. Together his writings mirror the seasons, landscapes, and environmental conditions as he experienced them, and help remind us that trees’ annual rings are representations of our own struggle, illness, happiness, and purpose. Heartfelt and lovely, Trees offers a homecoming, or in the author’s comforting words: “They struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws….Whoever has learned to listen to trees no longer wants to be one. He wants to be nothing except who he is. That is home."

TreesMy Heart Greets You*Good FridayThe Old Copper Beech*Movement and Stillness in Harmony*Flowering BranchThe Miracle of Rebirth*Spring NightChestnut Trees DreamThe Peach TreeIn Full FlowerHermits and Warriors*Shackled Power and Passion*The BirchMay in the Chestnut ForestThe Black ForestTrees by Joyce KilmerUprooted*Page from a DiaryLinden BlossomsLament for an Old TreeVagrant HostelOppositesNight with Mountain WindThe Little PathSummer Afternoon at an Old Country HouseElegy in SeptemberAt Bremgarten Castle Natural Forms*Tree in Autumn Pruned OakA Stray Son of the South*From “Description of a Landscape”Withered LeafBetween the Hourglass and the Withered Leaf*In the FogA Broken Branch CreaksWanderer in Late AutumnAfterword by Volker MichelsSourcesList of Plates * Titles followed by an asterisk were supplied by the German editor, Volker Michels, for untitled poems or excerpts from longer works.