Monday, October 31, 2016

Trees....I go to you





Trees...

I go to you
as to no others
my shame exposed
my finiteness revealed
I bow before
your kind
who have known
the angst
of ages
been toppled
in the name
of progress
uprooted
for beauty's sake
you who are
beauty incarnate
who welcome
my imperfection
my crude exterior
that you pierce
continually
to make me
yours
 
always
you speak without words
not like we
with our sounds
and inadequate
sentiment
you speak
with leaves
with sighs
and stirrings
with bits of light
that come together
into thought
idea
warning
 
telling stories
sharing secrets
revealing truths
known only to you
standing
as you have
these ages
patient
resigned
the wind
the sun
the rain
and birds




Sunday, October 30, 2016

Trees...unless we were there...



Trees...
 
...unless we were there when you first took hold
on some dark night not far beneath the soil's surface
when whatever seed produced you split open
revealing all its truths the promise of root and crown
introduced you to the world we can't know
how long you lived how long you held birds
in your arms made space for tree houses
or sheltered lovers from spring rains
thrilled us with myriad greens in summer
and riots of red orange and gold in autumn
 
we can't know this fact irrelevant
as it is in most cases for why should we care
how old you are or how long it took you to get there
where you stood with others who made it
the struggle the merciless winds you bore the ice
that threatened to do you in several times
it only makes it all the harder to bear when they
finally do away with you leaving
just a stump all that's left of what you were
 
I remember a pine tree whose layers
from its heartwood out
numbered close to a hundred and how
I stood there bent over it knowing how long
it had taken it to get there and how quick its demise
painless unless you allow how fickle Time is
how quick to unravel all that she has pushed along
to the here and the now toward some culmination
that means nothing


I did not thrill to that
 
but then when you are gone
we know don't we
we count rings run our fingers lovingly and respectfully
across your damp remains your uncharacteristic flatness
where once stood lushness and character
and say things like "ah" and "oh"
and marvel that we can do it
forgetting all that you once did for us
all that you once were
 
even in death you do this much for us




Sunday, October 23, 2016

Trees....even when I am not with you...









Trees

 

...even when I am not with you

I am with you

if only through my window

as you shed your fall attire and wait to don

your winter finery

 

a few of you left recently

decimated by the tree service

saws

 

I sat by watching as they

toppled you sent you crashing to the ground

where you sent shudders through me for

the last time and then

 

someone came to erase what was left

grind away at your soul

at the records of your years

your dust fell

mingled with the soil

and then I went out

to claim you

to scatter as much as I could of you

among my flowers

where you will never be forgotten

at least not by them

 

and now it's as if nothing was

ever there at all

as if you'd never stood there

straining beneath the taller trees that had

the advantage all along but you never gave up

reaching for the sun

ever

 

nor will I

 

ever