The Lightning Tree
The Lightning Tree by Valerie Gillies is a vibrant collection of poetry published by Polygon on May 15, 2002. This edition, comprising 80 pages, invites readers to journey across Scotland, where the inhabited landscape and wild places come alive through Gillies’s precise and resonant language. The collection features a variety of poetic forms, including lyric, ballad, sonnet, and haiku, all centered around the motif of locality and the natural world.
In this work, Gillies explores themes of nature, survival, and legend, particularly through the story of the Lightning Tree, an oak in Sutherland that recovers after being struck by lightning. The narrative unfolds as the tree revives and four acorns grow, symbolizing resilience and renewal. Readers will find a rich tapestry of animals, birds, trees, and mythical beings, such as the banshee and the Stone Woman of Craigencallie, all contributing to a deeper understanding of rural life and its challenges.
Official synopsis Publisher
In this vibrant new collection, Valerie Gillies takes us on a journey across Scotland, exploring the inhabited landscape and the wild places. Locality presides as a powerful motif in a rich world of animals, birds, trees, and legendary beings such as the banshee and the Stone Woman of Craigencallie. Gillies´s verse, sustained by its precision of language and its depth of resonance, flourishes in an exuberance of poetic forms, from lyric to ballad, from sonnet to haiku. Central to the book is the story of the Lightning Tree, an oak in Sutherland struck by lightning. The following spring it recovers and four acorns grow as the tree revives. Gillies´s poetry -with its focus on nature and the harshness of rural life today -gives a rare insight into survival and recovery, into love and legend.
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