Poetry Above Profits

Dear Seven Days Newspaper and Healthy Living,

I have been meaning to write or call to thank you for your remarkable act of generosity the last week of December 2012. On Sunday, December 30th, I came back to the house after a spectacular solo snowshoe tromp through Red Rocks Park in S. Burlington, VT. Bright sun, azure blue sky over Lake Champlain, stately pine trees, their branches bowed down with fresh snow.

Still high from my outing, I tried to express my feelings to my husband, "Please remind me that I love to be in the woods - that I need to be around trees!" He answered, "Did you see Seven Days?" With the busy-ness of Christmas, I had not looked at the latest edition of our Burlington-based alternative newsweekly. George didn't say a word, but found the paper, and showed me the back page. A full tabloid page printed with the poem "When I Am Among the Trees" by Mary Oliver. No ad headline or copy, just a small logo of the ad's sponsor, Healthy Living food store.

Thank you for this New Year's gift to Vermonters -- one more reason Burlington is such a great place to live! An enlightened business and a community newspaper willing to put poetry above profits during the all-important holiday sales season.

Last two verses of "When I Am Among the Trees"

Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out,"Stay awhile."
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, "It's simple," they say,
"and you too have come into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine."

- Mary Oliver