Can We Talk in Trees & Flowers?

Jun 22

Jun 22 Can We Talk in Trees & Flowers?

How nature speaks to us. There seems to be change in the way modern people view nature. An appreciation for the intelligence of other living things and the ways in which they communicate is being discussed and researched regularly. Most pet owners are not surprised by this scientific breakthrough.

"Sounds" in nature, what a broad subject. Other species make musical sounds, soo t hing sounds, scary sounds, funny sounds, they have conversations (see below), they actually say things to us, and other species help us articulate our inner most experiences.

The living things all around us are constantly speaking to our conscious and subconscious selves.

Here are three articles, three videos, and several poems exploring and demonstrating these ideas.

Trees Have Their Own Songs (Atlantic Monthly 2017) -- Book Review
"David George Haskell can distinguish trees by their sounds. The task is especially easy when it rains, as it so often does in the Ecuadorian rainforest. Depending on the shapes and sizes of their leaves, the different plants react to falling drops by producing “a splatter of metallic sparks” or “a low, clean, woody thump” or “a speed-typist’s clatter.” Every species has its own song. Train your ears (and abandon the distracting echoes of a plastic rain jacket) and you can carry out a botanical census through sound alone."

The Seecret Language of Trees (Project Earth, 2017) -- Short video
Trees are the largest organisms on Earth, predating humans by hundreds of millions of years. "Trees actually are speaking to each other. Trees use a vast underground network to send each other nutrients and warn their their neighbors about droughts and disease. Considering they’ve been around for over 400 million years, is it really that surprising that they’ve figured out a way to communicate?"

Other pieces on Tree Talk:

How Trees Talk to Each Other (TED talk, 2016),
Hidden Life of Trees (Skavlan interview, 2016),
How Plants Communicate and Think (BBC documentary, 2015).

Can We Speak in Flowers? (Short poems by Nayyirah Waheed, 2016)
"Poems come as they will... I think it’s one of the ways my soul communicates with me, I do my best to sit down and listen." How does nature influence our thoughts, emotions, and ability to articulate ourselves? Here are just a few of the outstanding poems by Nayyirah Waheed from the link above.