breeze brewin'

Planting a Sequoia seems to be about the death of an unborn child and how the author comes to terms with it. The Sequoia, olive and fig trees are a symbol of birth, and specifically the fig and olive trees symbolize natures life giving properties to human existence. Therefore there is an interesting contrast that the Sequoia tree is planted with the dead child, both literally and in a manner in which it was planted because the child died, the tree becomes a kind of rebirth of the infant. Death being a strong theme, the images are chosen accordingly. A black rain storm on the horizon - the dark and rain are ominous enough but to be on the horizon gives it more of a looming doom type feeling, as if it hangs over the whole poem. It works in more ways than one, it is a metaphor for the author holding back tears of sorrow through stifled icy emotionless demeanor, evident in "cold winds" keeping the storm away. The rising Sequoia is personified in this poem, the author is projecting onto it the things he had planned for his own son to experience, told through a beautiful line "Nights scented with the ocean fog, days of softened by the circuit of bees." It flows beautifully with many 's' type sounds. 'nights - scented - ocean - days - softened - circuit - bees'. Overall there is a lot more going on in this poem that I won't address, but I chose to post about this poem because I found it emotionally striking.