Connecting With Trees
By skinner_jennifer
- 859 reads
To look back on sweet but brief
tranquil days, when made for
soulful pleasures; passage of
silence gratifying the restless mind,
and I will give these treasures meaning.
Greenery conveys your majestic
beauty bestowed upon each stem
you've furnished with cones, where
pigeons balance within shadowed
foliage; beating wings with
demonstrative expression;
you stoutly defend your familiars
stirring growth. What happens in
places of repose: when no muffled
voices are heard? Do the trees of
life assume command?
Did you pursue each newcomer
with outstretched branches,
knowing duty to integrate all; from
youngest to oldest...even when
irritated by occasional squirrel?
They too have their longings and
desires.
When gusts with force swept you
in a wild dance that night, your
centre with vulnerability shaken to
the core – like myself on that
inevitable day, you too had an
unavoidable fall.
Arboreal creatures grasp secret
triggers to be unlocked, wildly they
have no need for studying the arts,
or want to be seen where there's no
undergrowth; that's the significant
difference we humans overlook.
I will always see your dignified
beauty in that now empty space,
inspiring summers dreamy days;
when hypnotized by those tiny
flies that circled as I lay, with just
the glistening rays sparkling
between leaves, chasing all my
cares away.
Dear diary...A poem in memory of the trees
that once stood, before being
blown down on a night of gales.
Photo is my own.
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Comments
What a lovely idea to write a
What a lovely idea to write a poem about your blown over trees. Did you replant in the space where they fell?
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we talk about rainforests,
we talk about rainforests, but Britain used to have forests too as did all nations.
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I like this one.
I enjoyed the read!
William E Alexander
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"Arboreal creatures grasp
"Arboreal creatures grasp secret
triggers to be unlocked.."
Different circumstances, I know, but your poem made me think of the missing Sycamore Gap tree at Hadrian's Wall. Trees make the world a better place so the thought of replacing lost ones is just fine and dandy with me :)
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So sorry you cannot replace
So sorry you cannot replace your trees! That's a real shame when you are one of those too rare people who truly appreciate them, which is why I love reading your tree poems. You seem to go deep into Nature, into a vein that is beyond science, that has a deeper truth. Really enjoyed your poem, specially
"with outstretched branches,
knowing duty to integrate all; from
youngest to oldest."
and wonderful images of
"where
pigeons balance within shadowed
foliage"
and
"glistening rays sparkling
between leaves"
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A poor tree in poetry
I love trees and I know the upset that losing one can bring. We have a couple of very very old walnut trees which I love but always wonder if they will survive the next storm. If they were human they'd be in a home for the elderly.
So I read deeply into your poem. Nice one Jenny!
Turlough
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Trees
The most uplifting bit of human optimism I have ever witnessed was when I was in Madagascar and we visited a forest where baobab trees were growing. They had specimens that had been growing there for more than six hundred years. One tree, they claimed, was more than a thousand years old.
Sitting outside a hut by the road I saw a young boy planting baobab seeds in pots of soil. There's nothing like planning for the future! I think of him just about every time I go near a tree, especially an old one.
One way or another, trees can bring out the best in all of us and the wildlife that we live amongst.
Turlough
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I enjoyed the way you
I enjoyed the way you describe the branches as outstretched and welcoming of all. A tree holds no prejudice and they're such generous spirits but beautiful too, what more could you ask? We are planning to have a lovely mature cedar removed because it's causing problems for both us and our neighbour. I feel guilty every time I walk under it and need to somehow make peace with it before the chop.
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