Under the Tree: A Tree Academy Anthology of Poetry & Prose

"This is a compilation of original language art comprised of short stories, meta-fiction, flash fiction, both narrative novels in progress and either pitch-paragraphs for screenplays or narrative monologues created for theatre arts; even lively memoires and an innovative cultural essay. There’s the extra-added attraction of free verse, as well as rhymed lyric composition in a compilation from 56 English curriculum students in a writing program I’d been originally invited to develop for this school in its founding year of 2016. Reciting what follows for the first time in front of an Education Coalition fundraiser audience at Herb Alpert’s Education Village backed by DOORS guitarist Robby Krieger playing his original composition “Spanish Caravan” and earlier that same year of 2017 “Advice” was composed under an influence by pages from a writing workshop volume titled Voice & Verse by Paul F. Cummins. My lines were more or less informed by a file of creative writing techniques I’d been inventing over the years to be used in university seminars for education majors; also, used as a blueprint for teachers already in the classroom and designed to motivate students towards cultivation of individual language sensibilities and vocabulary skills." -- Michael C Ford (from his foreword in the anthology)