DANCE OF TREES by BETH BAUGH

We have always wanted a birch-covered book for the Miniature Book Library and are very grateful this wish was fulfilled by San Francisco-based artist Beth Baugh! Here is her book-length poem, DANCE OF TREES, in its decorated box as we opened it:

The lovely book contains a poem which we feature here in its entirety (click on all images to expand):

Here are some of the lovely interior contents:

We asked Beth to share some background to this wonderful project and she said:

This poem came to me before, during, and after the California wildfires in the summer of 2020. I wrote the final section as ash rained down around me, and as several of my friends and family members were forced to flee fires in Northern and Southern California. I have favorite trees in many places, and when Big Basin burned, I mourned the loss of those giant redwoods, then rejoiced as it was discovered that many of them had survived. 

The poem’s lines are interspersed with leaf drawings and rubbings, some as faint as the ash-ghosts of trees lost in the fires. I had grand plans to make a more complex book cover out of tree bark and moss, but pandemic inertia intervened. Then one day on a walk through the neighborhood I found a paper birch tree with strips of bark peeling off like the pages of a book. The birchbark cover echoes the lokta-bark pages of the tiny Nepali book Eileen gave me to fill. 

Beth also shares that the paperback birch used is from the lovely lotta--"less papery-looking because they use the inner bark but the flowers sell like heaven." Long ago, Beth says, she lived in Nepal and spent time making paper there:

We are delighted and grateful to receive the results of Beth's artistry. Thank you Beth! And here's some more information about her:

Beth Baugh is a teacher, singer-songwriter, photographer, and mom living in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is currently social-distancing with 3 generations of family under one roof and practicing radical acceptance while still trying to keep one step ahead of the local fauna in the garden.