Love Notes From The Hollow Tree

Haunted Forest Trilogy

by Jarod K. Anderson (Narrator)

Poet and podcaster Jarod K. Anderson (creator of The CryptoNaturalist podcast and author of Field Guide to the Haunted Forest) celebrates the natural world with warmth and humor. The poetry and prose in this collection are love letters to impermanence, to our kinship with nature, to our strange ability to conjure meaning. Vivid and approachable, the work gathered here invites listeners to rediscover commonplace wonders and find new beauty in topics ranging from moss to mortality. The poems in this collection highlight our connection to a living universe and affirm our place in a wilderness worthy of our love.

Genres: Poetry, Nature, Audiobook, Science, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Environment

Audiobook

First published May 27, 2022

About the author

Jarod K. Anderson is a strange mix of fantasy nerd, nature writer, podcaster, poet, and erstwhile academic. He once accidentally picked up a rattlesnake and has slept in the branches of a maple tree more than most writers. He created and voices The CryptoNaturalist podcast, a show about real love for imaginary nature, and he regularly shares his poems and prose on social media. He has published three books of poetry as well as the memoir Something in the Woods Loves You, about his lifelong struggle with depression and the healing power of the natural world. His new contemporary fantasy novel Strange Animals will be published in February 2026 by Ballantine Books. He has an MA in early modern English literature and insists he’s more fun than that makes him sound. He lives with his wife and son in a little white house tucked between a park and a cemetery.

Reviews

[Jennifer Shelby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filled with poems that made my heart skip. I started out leaving bookmarks in the pages of the poems that meant the most to me but gave it up once I realized I was marking every page.
This collection definitely reads as a collection written over the last two years of the pandemic, there are zoom call poems (don't worry, they still wind up being about nature) and a wider theme of questioning our mortality, probing at the edges of what death is and is not, all filtered through Anderson's unique way of seeing the world.
Like the first book (Field Guide to the Haunted Forest), I'll be keeping this one near my favorite reading nook so I can find it easily when my soul needs a bit of Anderson's balm.

[Mer Mendoza (Merlyn’s Book Hoard) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gave this one a second ago (this time in audiobook!)

I really do think that Forsythia might be my favorite of Jarod K Anderson’s, poems - and perhaps my favorite poem of anyone’s poems.

I particularly like the mix of terrible puns, silly observations, and absolutely life changing perspective, just scattered through this tiny book like leaves from a tree.

[Kathryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just wonderful. I’m so glad I found these two volumes of poetry.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is written in the language that I speak.

[Bird Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Audio.

Poetry.

Enjoyed the first collection “Field Guide to the Haunted Forest” more than this one. Themes of impermanence, goodness, depression, nature, interdependence…

“The Ache

When we feel pained or drained by the ugliness in the world,
It is because we are mourning.
We mourn for our love of what the world could be,
For a place that isn’t here, but should be.

That pain is the overwhelming goodness in you hungering for an echo of itself.
What is. What was. What could be.

It is a terrible mark of honor to mourn.
It means we have the courage to love
In an imperfect, impermanent world.

It means we sided with difficult tenderness over numbing indifference.”

[Tom Jonesman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a treasured gift from an even more treasured friend, and when this Spring got going, I realised I had been waiting for the Season to read this beautiful book of poetry. The poems are funny, insightful, profound, inspirational, thought-provoking, exploratory, devastating, mind-expanding and downright delectable. I often found myself thinking things like "Wow. Where has this been all my life?!", or "I didn't know I needed this, but I certainly do", or "I'd really like this poem read at my funeral" and also "I really want to write more poetry". Sublime, Slowdown Soul balm.

[Cassie ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but not as good as the first one IMO

[mantareads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anderson makes words look so easy. But there is so much poignant profundity in his lines. Words to keep close to my heart and soul. Thank you for your work. One of my favourite poets in this social media age.

[Rachel Sawyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I greatly enjoyed reading this. I love little books of poetry, especially ones about nature. They speak to my soul.

[Beck Sanchez · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I know the things I love about myself do not exist solely within me.
I don't need to trap them in stasis beyond time, walled off and lifeless.
They will not be lost when I return to the effortless unity of nature."
- "Tired of Forever"

Due to my obsessive-compulsive disorder "just right" subtype, the way I generally engage with poetry nowadays is by bickering with my impulsive, intrusive highly critical thoughts centered on what I'm reading and how it's written. It's stressful and invasive when I'm trying to enjoy and get immersed in the universe created by the author. But it also allows for some "exposure therapy" to tolerate "unrightness" and is a practice in mindfulness to continuously redirect my focus to the poem no matter how frequently and powerfully my thoughts deter from its contents.

It wasn't always like this, and reading these poems brings me back to a time where I wasn't held in a chokehold by my disorder and when I was younger and more in awe of the universe and all that is serendipitous and momentary. Exhaustion from the tumultuous state of the world and all I regularly have had to endure to function has weathered down my wonder, however reading this book is like returning to yourself, the version of yourself that saw magnificence in everything around you.

[M]

“Love Notes From The Hollow Tree” by Jarod K. Anderson is exactly what you need at times. That’s it, that’s love notes from a tree. This is the book, the whole book. Dealing with existential questions of life and death, depression and anxiety, the poet looks deep back into nature to cradle them as human questions want to be cradled: within moss, within the waters of a running river, within the Earth’s stone. It’s a beautiful book to read out loud with friends and I was very happy to read it with A.

Will come back to it at times of need!

“Whatever wonders we create,
whatever distant worlds we may visit,
will forever be a byproduct

of the virtue of trees.” /50

“A question as kind as sunlight
deserves an answer as generous as trees.” /39

[Vee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Jarod's second collection even more than his first, and I adored his first collection Field Guide to the Haunted Forest. This book helped calm my climate grief and all the other panicked thoughts about the state of the world around us, if only for a few precious moments. I loved that there are many poems about moss. I love that there are Dad jokes. Stellar Dad jokes. Thank you for this second collection. It is a lovely balm for this year and the years to come.

[Scott Whitney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find myself in awe again at the understanding and the craft that I find in the pieces of poetry found between the front and back covers of this book. The first book was fantastic, and I find that this book is just as astounding in its scope. There are poems of only a few lines, which will change with the way they are looked at. I find myself reading a poem and then contemplating the different meanings which the words will bring to mind as I examine it.

[dandelion · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection more than the previous one. There's still a pattern of using "you" in many of the poems but perhaps it's the headspace I'm in today that it doesn't bother me as much as it did in the first collection.

[Amanda Esthelm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this collection, it was sweet and meaningful. Filled with nature and love

[Becca Voisich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love discovering new weird writers

[Luna ZR · Rating 4 out of 5]

It didn’t quite capture the same level of wholesomeness as the first volume, but it was still pretty wonderful.
My top 5 favourites were The Ache, Geography, Eavesdropping, Resolution and The Return.

[Hanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aivan ihana. Suosittelen kaikille luonnon ja lempeiden runojen ystäville.
Piti vielä laittaa Andersonin uusinkin tilaukseen.

[D.J. Desmond · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not perfect, but it's a beautiful set of thoughts. The poetry side of it is not anything too complex, in fact I don't think he rhymes or rhythms much at all. But his ideas are the type of ideas we need to share with everyone. The connections to nature and the reassurance of human virtues - those qualities are what you should read this for.

[Kelly]

I LOVED Jarod K Anderson’s first book, Field Notes from the Haunted Forest. A collection of poetry-ish pieces basically about the wonder of the natural world. So I was very excited for his second book.

It’s was good - it still has his beautiful and unique way of seeing the natural world. It still pulled on my heart regularly. But I didn’t love this second book quite as much as I expected, because it felt a little more about mental health and self esteem, than nature. Which is just not what I was looking for at this time.

[Marjie C-O · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful, as expected; however for me not quite an equal to the fantastic "Field Guide to the Haunted Forest." That said, I have only read "Love Notes" once through so far and trust my affection for it will only grow upon further readings. I did absolutely experience the same brand of delight in this new collection. Anderson's truly unique ideas are simultaneously consciousness-expanding and comfort for the soul. Bright, warm light to illuminate both spirit and intelligence.

[Alex Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was so thoughtful of Jarod K Anderson to make the cover of his new book yellow as if it was a love letter just for me. Love Notes from the Hollow Tree is a collection of short poems about the materials of life and of the universe. It offers enlightened points of view on the absurdity of existence that give reason to celebrate our individuality and our unity. Parts are about death but mostly its about the trippyness of being alive.

These profound and simple poems are about how we see nature and about our bodies as part of nature. The collection is consistently positive and calming and has an underlying awareness of death with something halfway between longing and fear for it. Many poems are affirmations of oneness and of how life comes from death and how returning to the earth should not be feared.

This is an important book because it presents the joy of observing nature and in pondering its meaning. If there ever was one, this book is about the meaning of life. I think you should read it because it serves to unite us with each other and with everything. It is soothing, sometimes funny, sometimes dark but the moral of the collection is that nothing ever ends, and everything always changes. It truly is an existential love letter to the reader.

It was hard to sort this book in the Biophilium Good Reads account. Our shelves are mostly taxonomic, but although there are several poems here that praise trees it is not a book about 'Plants'. One of the book's themes is of the material of the body and of being of the earth, but it doesn't fit on our 'Geology' shelf. Every page is about nature but its not about 'Being in Nature'. The book often comes back to notions of death and continuity, but it's not a book about 'Extinction or Mourning Ritual'. Should I put it on all of these shelves or just in our 'Favorites' shelf?

Follow the author @cryptonature and @cryptonaturalist
He posts a beautiful poem almost everyday and they might be my favorite things on IG.

You should listen to his podcast the Cryptonaturalist which is about his experiences studying the wildlife of his dreams.

[Santa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple and beautiful collection of poems and musings on nature, death, meaning, mental health, and other such grand and universal concepts.

Just as his favourite subject - nature - the author transmutes the seemingly insignificant into strikingly grandiose and vice versa.

The way devices like gradation, parallels, and contrast are used in many of the poems is really nice. Take a poem like "Getting Dressed" in which a lovely contrast is created via the description of an unfolding leaf/clenched fist; above/deep; soft/ crushing... All tied together with the water imagery (river valley/ ocean floor) and transformed into a metaphor for clothing, which is then escalated into a metaphor for our ever-changing emotions, behaviours, and attitudes. Simple, yet masterful.

And I also enjoyed the many punchy lines and imagery throughout the poems, which do carry them a lot, since they are very short. Some favourites:

"It's no trouble that our meeting place is imaginary.
Many worthwhile things are."

"To feel both utter frustration
and unqualified love for the world is the tension I'm learning to endure."

"The sweetness in life is as much a question of omission as inclusion."

"We mourn for our love of what the world could be,
for a place that isn't here, but should be."

Poems like "Clergy" and "Cauldron" are probably best examples in their entirety of this type of vivid storytelling via symbolism.

My only criticism would be aimed at some of the poems that were trying to be funny and quippy (they were not bad, but felt very out of place in this collection), as well as some that felt a bit like unfinished Notes app thoughts one would find among Tumblr and Instagram poetry. For example, the "Zoom" poems or "Cartographer."

But overall, I enjoyed this collection just as much as the "Field Guide to the Haunted Forest" and am looking forward to read even more of this author's work.

[Mish Mash Succotash · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading Field Guide to the Haunted Forest, I knew I had to read everything Anderson has published. I held onto this until a quiet evening and took my time getting through it. And what a wonderful little book it is, a little more whimsical than the first. The poems in this collection range from metaphysical to creepy to therapeutic to downright silly-- for instance, Apologies #2 is simply a nerdy dad joke. But all of them retain Anderson's quiet wonder at the bizarre, beautiful world around and within us. All of these are poems you'll want to stop and savor, and this second collection has cemented Anderson as a must read poet for me.

I'm so lucky to be related to this absolutely wonderful soul by virtue of also appreciating the "good sticks" I come across, and Kin left me brimming with nostalgia for all the times my siblings and friends and I didn't want to leave our good sticks in the woods. One of the perks of being a grown up is that now I don't have to. These little moments of gratitude peppered my reading of Anderson's poems, and I think I'll keep both of these collections close for any time I need a reminder of how beautiful and silly life can be.

[Kate Parr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second of Anderson's poetry collections I've read and it was just as enchanting and teasing and thought-provoking as the first. The endless optimism would be too much to bare coming from a less aware mind but from him, somehow it is just a gentle nudge towards the right path. There are plenty of poems dealing with death, but in the sense that death and life are essentially the same, and that we are part of something so massive and endless that a simple little change in shape and arrangement of atoms is nothing to be afraid of when the time comes.

Again they were too beautiful, too juicy to just rush through, so I held myself to one or two a day until I realised that it could be the book that would finish my annual challenge, at which point I did take a slightly quicker meander through the last quarter.

From Sidenotes: The sky sings in wrens and swears in seagulls.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A more light-hearted volume than his first, there are still the gorgeous odes to ordinary things, still the unique perspective of the world and our communion with it that made “Field Guide” so wonderful. Equally silly and contemplative, poignant and inspirational, this little book offers meditations on everything from trees and moss to death and love and Zoom calls and the meaning of life. Happy to keep both volumes within easy reach, and will be adding the third as soon as possible.

(Read Field Guide to the Haunted Forest for reverent, soul-moving nature poems, and Love Notes when you’re ready to love being human in the world.)

[Mark Eichin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Broad spectrum poetry - surreal to romantic, thoughtful to cackle-inspiring. Throughout, a sense of caring and "presence", for lack of a better word (I'm not the one *writing* poetry here, after all...)

I picked this up for basically the same reasons I picked up Field Guide to the Haunted Forest and then realized that was itself still on the "read soon" shelf, oops.

[Charles McCaffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book of poems from a Veteran I had been Facebook friends with for 3 years and finally met in Seattle in November (and who had recently published his own book of poems). I am so thankful for this gift and will be reading more of Jarod's work. I've always told people that I felt more of the beauty and power of the universe alone in nature than I ever did in church. Jarod captures this in every poem.

[h hoover · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never know how to talk about my favorite books in anything but poetry: how to say, in an intellectual and understandable way, "this book made me want to live another day" and not sound ridiculous. But it did. If you need a dose of the beauty of the natural world and our place in it as humans, take a walk. If you can't, read this book. Or listen to it. Or breathe it in, slowly, preferably while lying on your back somewhere green, if you can't do the walking.

[Mandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good poetry collection from Anderson! His first collection (haunted forest) was life-changing for me and went straight on my god shelf. Every page spoke to my soul.

This one was less impactful to me personally, with more pages that felt like "filler". But there were still quite a handful of pieces that I really liked. And of course there were meaningful lines everywhere.

Definitely recommend this if you like nature inspired poetry!