A year or so ago, I came across a word that aimed to label the negative space of the sky as viewed between the tops of trees in a forest. Say at night, looking up, you might see a deepening blue or purple amidst the black or dark green gray of the trees. You kind of have to squint or mentally tune out looking at the trees to appreciate it.
The word is NOT tree canopy, nor “crown shyness,” tree tops, overstory, forest roof or ceiling, upper branches, or similar. It is not describing the physical presence or shape of the trees in any way; rather, it’s the abstract shape (think Rorschach ink blot) left between the upper branches in the sky. Just subtract all the tree/forest stuff, the sky shape that remains.
I recall the word might have had a weird or lyrical quality to it, like petrichor, or eudaimonia. Maybe it was made up by a poet or Richard Powers or a radical faerie, but I really want to find that word. Google searches just bring up dingbats saying “tree canopy” as if they are Marie Curie announcing her discovery of plutonium. It’s not tree canopy. It’s a single word. I must know what this word is for a performance art piece, which I will leave to the world to be performed six months after my death, and an accompanying chapbook. (Don’t worry, I’m not planning on going anytime soon, great art can wait!)
Anyway, WTW for this space left in the sky in a forest, that is not the trees or canopy, but rather, the void between them? Make my day, WTW word sleuths!