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The Trees in You: Poems about the boundaries of self & other

Blog Posts

The Trees in You: Poems about the boundaries of self & other

Jenna van de Ruit

These poems were submitted as part of our Her Words on the World digital series, a partnership with Hedgebrook Women’s Writers Retreat to showcase the work of six talented women writers whose work explores nature and the environment. Visit our exhibit page to learn about the authors.


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All Tail

This silence is not mine to 

break but we shed our selves 

like snake. 

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Why are you

scared of

broken when your skin

longs to split?


Time is in the breath

With each breath I move  

closer to death. I breathe  

closer, like a lover. 

We understand now, virus in the air, 

how each breath brings us  

closer, and that we are lovers. 

I cannot keep you from my lungs. 

I cannot keep myself  

from you. 

With each breath we move 

closer to death 

and the ways in which 

we are air and each other, 

the ways in which 

we cannot help but love 

the world that keeps  

us dying. 

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Things to inhabit


A spider threads itself across 

two blades of grass;


draws wider and 

wider circles on air,

creating a home from within. 


A raintree beetle passes 

through with no more 

or less body 

than a word.


Something sticks. The dragonfly 

is consumed into another life.


No threads of 

story here. Only 

things to inhabit. Only 


ways to be inhabited.

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Writer Jenna van de Ruit is from Zimbabwe, where she currently lives in a treehouse. Read our Q&A to learn more about her.

Images: Jenna van de Ruit