Dutch Elm Disease

Gold cherry
Poem of the week

By onemorething

Fri, 30 Oct 2020
  • 2732 reads
14 comments
 

Elms make good coffins

in their resistance to decay,

even though each tree, itself,

can struggle to survive.

We observe and accept so much 

without the foundations of understanding:

it is said that you should not speak 

whilst you dig a grave,

you should not look back 

from a funerary procession.

You should not. 
 

I don't know why;

 

only that Orpheus was grief-stricken

with regret, resigned to be riparian 

in a longer song of sleep, hung

upon the notes of music, strung

to the roots required to grow 

a forest of Elm. Still, the green

of love leaves as all things must

migrate to their own winters in the end.

 

I don't know why,

 

but this tree can perceive its tenants,

rally wasps, summon Saturn - 

no mother to these sip-sap children 

- expels them with repulsion. 

You should not dream of death, 

you should not depart a burial

by the same route that you arrived.

You should not. 
 

I don't know why

 

there are thresholds that we keep

or cross; the Elm marks a passage alone,

is no arbiter of choices and besides,

alternatives narrow when one is stunted

from actualisation: this is a disease

of the unloving of a bark beetle, here,

only a jaundice of sorrow

can multiply amongst the living. 

 

Image is of Orpheus from here: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DSC00355_-_Orfeo_(epoca_romana)_-_Foto_G._Dall%27Orto.jpg#mw-jump-to-license

 

Other images on Twitter: 

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Les_funérailles_d_Étienne_Chevalier.jpg#mw-jump-to-license

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Constable_-_Study_of_an_Elm_Tree_-_c1821.jpeg

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arboretum_et_fruticetum_britannicum;_or,_The_trees_and_shrubs_of_Britain,_native_and_foreign,_hardy_and_half-hardy,_pictorially_and_botanically_delineated,_and_scientifically_and_popularly_described;_(19562504090).jpg
 

 

Certificate 15
Poem
Unclassified

Comments

Submitted by Ewan on

but you are getting better and better. No, I do: it's practise making perfect, or as near as anything can get to that. You need to be looking at another collection soon. This is extremely good work.

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks so much Ewan, that's very kind. Am mostly very glad to still be writing as much as anything else! Thanks for the cherries too. x

 

Submitted by marandina on

Beautiful and sanguine

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Oh, thank you! Happy you liked it and saw some hope buried in it! Thanks for reading it. Rachel :)

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

I can only feel sadnes for the elm. such beautiful trees, then to be afflicted with the disease. Growing up as a child we had woods at the bottom of our garden and two elm trees stood proudly right outside our back gate, till the dreaded dutch elm disease got them, and they were chopped down. 

You've reminded me that as we come to All Hallows Eve, I should remember those two trees and the pleasure they gave us.

Thank you for your poem Rachel.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Ah, Jenny, yes, it's such a devastation. I think it's particularly sad too that saplings and young trees keep springing to life only to often be killed in their prime by this fungal disease. I feel increasingly sad too about Ash dieback too when I see Ash trees that have died and then marked with crosses to be cut down, having died. I'm glad it made you remember your trees, they are wonderful and have such interesting mythology and folklore attached to them, and history...I didn't realise that due to their resistance to rotting in watery conditions that it was discovered that they were used to make water pipes in London in the 15th / 16th century, quite extraordinary...well, to me anyway! (Included a link if you want to see a picture of them, though if you Google elm water pipes, lots of great images come up.) Thanks for reading it. x

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co85760/part-of-an-...

(Am saving the rest of you fairytale for the weekend!)

 

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

Thanks Rachel. I had no idea about the water pipes of london being made from elm. Thanks for the link. I showed it to my partner, even he had no idea either. It's amazing the things that are discovered over time.

Again very interesting. I hope you enjoy the rest of my story when you have time.

Jenny.

 

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

This wonderful piece is our Poem of the Week - Congratulations! It's also our Facebook and Twitter pick of the day - please share/retweet if you enjoyed it too

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Super chuffed, thank you very much! Happy weekend all x

 

Submitted by drew_gummerson on

A great choice for Poem of Week. Ewan is right. It is the practice, the craft, the hard work which results in such great results. And the digging down into your themes, nature and its relationship to our existence. 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks Drew! That's a lovely thing to say. x

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Liked this very much, it feels like a wheel going round, like the cycle of Life, which cannot go back. And your mention of leaves, again, to signify how ephemeral we are, our hopes and loves and fears.

Also, your comment to Jenny about water pipes, is strange, how undignified for huge beautiful trees to be made to hold sewage, yet now, to see the rich colour and grain in the photo from your link, is to be connected with a treasure of life that if it had not been used for pipes, would have disappeared under the wheel, rotted away.

Agree with Ewan, you must have enough great stuff  for another collection.

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks Di, yes, precisely re the cycle of life. I'm not sure how I feel about the water pipes either, but they do look very beautiful. Apparently, this was also a practice by the Romans too - always good with plumbing! Thanks for reading it and your lovely comment. x

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks Di, yes, precisely re the cycle of life. I'm not sure how I feel about the water pipes either, but they do look very beautiful. Apparently, this was also a practice by the Romans too - always good with plumbing! Thanks for reading it and your lovely comment. x