“Bay Tree”

Susan Kay Anderson created “Bay Tree” from the Complete Herbal by Nicholas Culpeper (1653). Please click here to read.

About the poem and the process of composing it, Susan Kay Anderson writes:

I looked for a story that I could tell from material found in this herbal encyclopedia of plants and their healing properties. Most of these plants look like weeds, yet they are healing and magnificently drawn and described within the Complete Herbal. Reading this made me want to write in a noble way, as well. What I got from combining words my eyes fell upon, much in the vein of teaching that Martha Rhodes practices with her students, is something surreal, almost like a visit to a country or place I have never been before.

Also by Susan Kay Anderson at Heron Tree: “The Problem,” “Digression,” “At Radio Central,” “When I Was a Boy,” and “Every Singer.”