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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The Architecture of Trees


                  As I look out the window this February morning, it strikes me how bare the trees are, their bones so evident in the stark clarity of these winter days. The skeletal limbs sway in the wind, silhouetted against the gray sky. Their brittle branches tremble with every gust. The upper boughs fan out their tangled twigs reaching for the muted winter light; the lower reach downward as if yearning to reclaim the leaves that wafted to the earth like feathers some months now past. Tall oaks, like giant sentinels, stand firm beside the spreading maples, while the gnarly ash is blighted by splotches of lichen. Nearby, denying the blandness of winter, the white birch swoops and bends its supple limbs to the pulse of the wind. Yet even now, in these last five weeks of the season, the buds begin to form, tiny pods of hope that bask in the sunlight of these longer days. They will soon burst forth in an exuberance of new growth, new leaves, new branches, new life, and we, along with the trees in their new attire, will welcome the spring once again. 


1 comment:

  1. Mr. Kersting! I remember you from my student days at Briarcliff High. Almost 10 years after graduation, the memories of your classes are still fresh in my mind. Your classes on euphemisms and Shakespeare were the best English classes I have ever experienced!
    You are an amazing writer. Perhaps consider writing your own book?

    ReplyDelete

Publications

  • "Betting the Farm," PUTNAM Magazine, The Journal News, Summer 2008 (See link below.)
  • "So How Does My Garden Grow?" in Why Am I Doing This? Purposeful Teaching Through Portfolio Assessment, ed. Giselle O. Martin-Kniep, Heinemann, 1998
  • "What Maisie Knew," LEITRIM GUARDIAN Magazine, County Leitrim, Ireland, 1993 Annual
  • "Climbing Cuilcagh Mountain," LEITRIM GUARDIAN Magazine, County Leitrim, Ireland, 1990 Annual
  • "Administrative Jargon as a Barrier to Effective Communication," NASSP Bulletin, Journal of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, May 1984 (See link below.)
  • "Local Folk Legends: Learning From an Irish Model," The English Record, Journal of the New York State English Council, Third Quarter, 1984
  • "The Other Ireland," CARA Magazine (Dublin), Nov.-Dec. 1982
  • "Through a Glass Darkly," The Distorted Image of the Irish in America," SUNDAY Magazine (Gannett Suburban Newspapers), White Plains, NY, March 18, 1979