“C.D. Wright belongs to a school of exactly one.” ―The New York Times “C.D. Wright has been writing some of the greatest poetry-cum-prose you can find in American literature.” ―Dave Eggers Casting Deep Shade is a passionate, poetic exploration of humanity’s shared history with the beech tree. Before Wright’s unexpected death in 2016, she was deeply engaged in years of ambling research to better know this tree―she visited hundreds of beech trees, interviewed arborists, and delved into the etymology, folk lore, and American history of the species. Written in Wright’s singular prosimetric style, this “memoir with beech trees” demonstrates the power of words to conserve, preserve, and bear witness. Honoring Wright’s lifelong fascination with books as objects, this final work is a three-panel hardcover that encloses the body of text, illustrated with striking color photographs of beech trees by artist Denny Moers. George and Nannette Herrick allowed me to watch their best-loved beech be brought to the ground. Mrs. Herrick said her grandson was going to be so mad when he came to town to find his favorite climber gone. Mrs. Herrick wanted the tree cut to the grass. She did not want the stump to linger as a reminder. Born in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, C. D. Wright has received numerous honors for her poetry, including the National Book Critics Circle Award. Wright taught at Brown University for over thirty years. “C.D. Wright belongs to a school of exactly one.”―Joel Brouwer, The New York Times “Wright has found a way to wed fragments of an iconic America to a luminously strange idiom, eerie as a tin whistle.”―The New Yorker “C.D. Wright has been writing some of the greatest poetry-cum-prose you can find in American literature.”―Dave Eggers “For me C.D. Wright's poetry is river gold.”―Michael Ondaatje “CD Wright’s is a poetry of Southern mountain vision brought to the streets in a language of brilliant synaesthesia, colloquial warmth and laconic wit… a saxophone playing and a poignant voice making sense.”―Carolyn Forché “This is poetry as white phosphorus, written with merciless love and depthless anger…how can we react to a poetry this alive with invention and purpose but with joy?”―Judges’ Citation, Griffin Poetry Prize (2009) “Expertly elliptical phrasings, and an uncounterfeitable, generous feel for real people, bodies and places, have lately made Wright one of America's oddest, best and most appealing poets.”―Publishers Weekly “No single description adequately captures Wright’s work; she is an experimental writer, a Southern writer and a socially committed writer, yet she continuously reinvents herself with each new volume.”―MacArthur Foundation (2004) Born in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, C.D. Wright has received numerous honors for her fifteen-plus collections of poetry, including the National Book Critics Circle Award (2010). Wright taught at Brown University for over thirty years until she passed away in 2016. EVERY LIVING THING COMPETES: Water for oxygen, oxygen for water, oxygen and water for pore space in the soil. If New York is our nerve center for competition Los Angeles is the slacker Then there are the Ozarks of Arkansas birthplace of Walmart (4000 stores in the US, 2000 in Mexico alone) The triumph was Teotihuacan City of the Gods built in the shadow of the Pyramid of the Moon & the Pyramid of the Sun, a Supercenter, the Temple of Sam in the middle of Elda Pineda’s alfalfa field backed by bribes to change the zoning Competition the Walmart way Don’t blame it on the Mexicanos No arruinar las ruinas was the cry in the calles Where have all the one-person stalls and pepper trees (Shinus molle) of the wide valley gone ask the Sons of Sam [] A tree can only take so many insults. Esp when geriatric and distressed. Commonly a tree dies of hunger or thirst. As did my mother, as a result of Alzheimer’s. [] A couple noticed a problem with their beeches on their land in Harbor Springs, MI, two years ago: We’ll be in bed sometimes, and we’ll just hear: Whooomp! Jojoba oil is used for aphids. If it comes to that. Replaced sperm oil from whales and is used against mildew. Being used copiously in fact. As whale sperm once was. There is always picking them off one by one. Parasitic wasps attack aphids. As do ladybugs, the one bug nobody can deny. A ladybug will devour thousands of aphids in its itsy busy bitsy life. (Keep refrigerated until use.) [] Trees live long lives. Anything can happen. Come ice or wind or fire, or human disturbance, the effects are broad and dragged out. Out of angiosperms, oak, beech, elms, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. 120 million years ago. Mast from F. grandifolia may be the most important food source for Ursus americana, the American black bear. It would take a lot of nuts to stuff a hungry bear. Esp way up north where the woods are dominated by spruce. Did you know that the leaf of F. grandifolia produces the most nitrogen of all the trees in North America. As a nitrogen