James Surls
Once There Was A Forest
1989 

Project Area: CBD/Financial Core
Project: Citicorp Plaza Phase I
Project Location: 725 S. Figueroa Street
Project Type: Developer

Description:

A collaboration between poet Robert Creeley and artist James Surls, Once There Was a Forest consists of polished black granite cylindrical bollards that suggest petrified tree stumps arranged in an arc stretched across the front steps of the office building.  The top surface of each bollard has a polished pink granite square incised with images and poetry by Robert Creeley, including images of a bowl, a woodpecker, a bed, a pair of human eyes, a rocking chair, and a sailboat.  The bollards provide a place for people to rest and observe the passing traffic, while the poetry etched on the surface act as reminders of a history and space far removed from the quotidian bustle of immediate life.

They say this used to be a forest with a lake
You went by so quickly thinking there's a whole world in between
If I sit here long enough, all will pass me by one way or another
World's still got four corners
No one speaks alone, it comes out of something
What's still here settles at the edges of this simple place still waiting to be seen
Human eyes are lights to me sealed in this stone
It's not a final distance.  This here and now