Another busy summer week, so instead of a long essay, I’m going to give you another poem.

This one is from a collection I’ll release at the end of the year. But you can buy my collection from last year for $5.

“Glad You Made it” is about the idea of transplanting and how many people are coming to Western Washington now for reasons that are pretty obvious. The Czech philosopher I reference is Vaclav Havel,

Glad You Made It

The largest surviving American chestnut tree is in Tumwater, at the foot of Puget Sound, the oldest American settlement in Washington Territory.

The American chestnut is not native to Puget Sound, but now it is the only place you can find one.

Because life became unbearable, unlivable, everywhere else.

The chestnut tree came here and so survived a blight that destroyed the elder chestnuts on the east coast. It survived because it was here.

Like so many of you that come here because life where you lived before became unbearable.

You can survive because you are here. That is my hope.

That as the plague spread that made your life untenable in the soil that raised you, I appreciate you dug yourself up, exposing your roots. Here, let me try, as much as I can, to help you bury your roots here.

A Czech I read when I was a kid said that if you want to change your home, you don't leave. You stand your ground and live in truth, refusing to take part in the lie, even if it costs you your freedom. He spent years in prison for saying that, so I have a lot of respect for the observation. But it is not good advice.

But that is little solace to the chestnut tree. It doesn't have any relatives.

And that is little solace for you, I'm glad you're here.