How not to paint a tree

How Not to Paint a Tree is an original collection of poems that is often narrated by a speaker who refuses to divide memory, reality, and imagination into separate categories. As a result, mundane observations of an upstairs neighbor or a great-grandfather's business are peppered with the speaker's imaginings of what these otherwise unknown individuals must be like. Memories of childhood and family are infused with details that may or may not have really happened in the way they are told. The title poem links the language of the visual arts with that of poetry and daily life. The insistence of this poem's narrator to find integrity in her own attempts and failures, and to search for a more compelling version of events within an otherwise ordinary scene, are themes that repeatedly turn up throughout this collection.