Poe-tree

There's a small, but ominous-looking tree on Hwy 65 just North of Branson (the picture below is just a placeholder, not the actual tree). I’ve long since wanted to photograph the tree in the late autumn when it's bare, and then dress the image with two ravens - but rather than real ravens, women elaborately dressed and made up as ravens. For fun. For juxtaposition. 

While our current understanding of the Raven is that it is THE smartest bird, perhaps THE smartest animal, capable of logic, Poe’s use of the raven was based on the understanding that it was a “non-reasoning” creature.

In his work, The Raven, he illustrates the intentional self-torture of the narrator (grieving the loss of Lenore), wherein the narrator carries on a dialogue with a creature who has but one answer, Nevermore.

According to Quinn  (1998:441), this way of interpreting signs that do not bare true meaning is “one of the most profound impulses of human nature.” It is definitely an impulse of my own. Both Poe (and Quinn) might agree that this is the behavior of a person going mad; however, I suspect that while the signs, themselves, may be of limited meaning – they act to drive out the songbird in ourselves.

Quinn, Arthur Hobson. "Edgar Allan Poe, A Critical Biography." Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1998 (second printing)