Well this is very meta, commenting on my own Substack! Anyhoo, for the tree enthusiasts among us (you know who you are) I want to say - my first thought upon waking this morning was, cedars don't have needles!
So, I thought, the word "needled" had to be redacted from the poem, while I wondered if I need(l)ed to find another adjective to replace it, or if the line read ok without it ..
Meanwhile, I did a bit of quick internet reading about cedars, and apparently some do have needles. However, I had also walked across the street earlier to look at the cedars as well as the floor of the grove I write about in the poem. Didn't look like needles to me! The floor is a kind of springy mass of dropped leaves and branches, etc.. And the leaves of the trees themselves (I don't know what else to call the green foliage on trees if it isn't needles, except leaves!) is flat and lacy, and seems to drop in whole pieces onto the ground, where it turns a nice dry brown.
So the poem could be correct, or "correct" in a way, even if not totally factual about the actual grove I write about ..
I think in subsequent drafts I'll still take out "needled"!
Well this is very meta, commenting on my own Substack! Anyhoo, for the tree enthusiasts among us (you know who you are) I want to say - my first thought upon waking this morning was, cedars don't have needles!
So, I thought, the word "needled" had to be redacted from the poem, while I wondered if I need(l)ed to find another adjective to replace it, or if the line read ok without it ..
Meanwhile, I did a bit of quick internet reading about cedars, and apparently some do have needles. However, I had also walked across the street earlier to look at the cedars as well as the floor of the grove I write about in the poem. Didn't look like needles to me! The floor is a kind of springy mass of dropped leaves and branches, etc.. And the leaves of the trees themselves (I don't know what else to call the green foliage on trees if it isn't needles, except leaves!) is flat and lacy, and seems to drop in whole pieces onto the ground, where it turns a nice dry brown.
So the poem could be correct, or "correct" in a way, even if not totally factual about the actual grove I write about ..
I think in subsequent drafts I'll still take out "needled"!