Dorothea Margaret Tanning (25 August 1910 – 31 January 2012)

Dorothea Tanning was an American painter, printmaker, sculptor, writer, and poet born in Galesburg, Illinois and attended Knox College before studying painting in Chicago. In 1941, now in New York, she met the art dealer, Julien Levy who gave Tanning two one-person exhibitions, and also introduced her to the circle of émigré Surrealists. She turned her attention to her writing and poetry in the 1990s, working and publishing until the end of her life at age 101.

Dorothea Tanning
Woman Waving to Trees

not that anyone would notice it at first
i have taken to marveling at the trees in our park
one thing i can tell you
they are beautiful
and they know it
they are also tired
hundreds of years stuck in one spot
beautiful paralytics
when i am under them
they feel my gaze
watch me wave my foolish hand
and envy the joy of being a moving target

loungers on the benches begin to notice
one to another
“well, you see all kinds...”
most of them sit looking down at nothing
as if there was truly nothing else to look at
until there is that woman
waving up to the branching boughs of these old trees
raise your heads, pals
look high
you may see more than you ever thought possible
up where something might be waving back
to tell her she has seen the marvelous