Unchopping a Tree

There?s no mystery to chopping down a tree. But how do you put back together a tree that?s been felled? Mystical instructions are required, and that?s what W. S. Merwin provides in his prose piece “Unchopping a Tree,? appearing for the first time in a self-contained volume. Written with a poet?s grace, an ecologist?s insights, and a Buddhist?s reverence for life, this elegant work describes the difficult, sacred job of reconstructing a tree. Step by step, page by page, with Merwin?s humble authority, secrets are revealed, and the destroyed tree rises from the forest floor. Unchopping a Tree opens with simplicity and grace: “Start with the leaves, the small twigs, and the nest that have been shaken, ripped, or broken off by the fall; these must be gathered and attached once again to their respective places.? W. S. Merwin, like many conservationists, is quick to say: “When we destroy the so-called natural world around us we?re simply destroying ourselves. And I think it?s irreversible.? Thus the tree takes on a scale that begs the reader?s compassion, and one tree is a parable for the restoration of all nature.