Abhra Pal is hosting us over at dVerse Poets Pub and inviting us to write about trees, to think, be and feel tree. I always have to think about Ogden Nash’s tongue-in-cheek approach to tree poetry:
I think that I shall never see
a billboard lovely as a tree.
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall,
I’ll never see a tree at all.
For a diverse and interesting take on this prompt, please visit the other poets at the Pub. But here is a rough writing exercise about the tree in my garden. And no, I don’t know what kind of tree it is. I told you I am the world’s worst gardener, right?
I’m not good with names,
but I never met a tree I didn’t like.
This one is a toddler:
it greens so easily at the first blush of spring.
Shot up a metre when I looked away,
no longer hugged by the window frame.
Unruly and curly,
messy and fussy,
now a badly coiffed teenager windswept on all sides,
then a woman’s cascading morning glory,
promise of nights to come.
Leaves are gnarled and twisted too,
they sing the blues, over smoky-voiced guitars in distant jazz-clubs.
Skinny branches twist in painful shapes,
not quite weeping willow.
They arch up against gravity
with just occasional droops.
A fearless tree, shaking its mane
against a backdrop of mountains.
A sapling with just as much claim to eternity
as the Jurassic stones behind it.
Ah – a tree with attitude.
I wonder if it takes after it’s owners 🙂
Nice perspective.
Don’t let it get too big. They tend to swamp.
Tee-hee, so that’s why everyone inside and outside this house has got bags of attitude…
the arch up against gravity…sometimes it is the unruly that make it you know….i have had a few friends of trees growing up….i like the image of the tree shaking its mane….like a lion…
Not quite a lion yet – more of a cub, but getting there…
And a lovely tree it is, growing and shaping its way against wind, gravity & mountains ~ I agree, all trees are beautifully fearless ~
A personified tree very well done Marina. Great take on the humble tree.
Oh, I like this one, Marina Sofia! I love the analogy you use to a person growing up and the way you weave in the change of seasons. Well done.
Oh I love this wild untamed tree…they do have such personalities don’t they! Love it!
This is a great tree.. I can relate so well, I believe I would be good friends with it! Love the personification..
Not one of the old, wise crowd of secular trees, but a bit of a cheeky upstart. I’m good friends with it too, even if I can’t tie a hammock around it.
This was great, really clever 🙂
I love ‘a fearless tree, shaking its mane.’ Yes, I can picture that. You really have given the reader a vivid picture of the tree. I wonder if one of your readers will be able to tell you what kind of tree it is!
I hope so – I thought it was a weeping willow, but it’s a bit too upright for that…
oh i love the image of a fearless tree, shaking its mane… and here’s to many many more tree years..
Trees do ‘arch up against gravity’, don’t they? You have used some very evocative and powerful imagery here.
I enjoyed all of the personifications in this piece, moving through ages and stages of life. Lovely! 🙂
A tree as a toddler or a teenager.. that’s so nice and adorable..
Full of tantrums…
really like the line “Leaves are gnarled and twisted too,
they sing the blues, over smoky-voiced guitars in distant jazz-clubs” Never heard a tree described quite like that before! 🙂
Thank you – those young branches seemed so tortuous and suffering, it just called out for the blues at some point…
Beautiful and cordial images you paint with your words, smiles – may not exactly to the theme I had in mind though, but as a reader I connect to your thoughts.
Thank you for your indulgence, Abhra – but I do love the prompt. Trees seem to create such a natural loving response in us – perhaps because they represented shelter for our ancestors?
chuckling at the Nash-ian ode. nodding at the longer piece, especially
Unruly and curly,
messy and fussy,
now a badly coiffed teenager windswept on all sides,
then a woman’s cascading morning glory,
promise of nights to come. ~
Oh, I love this… and you will so enjoy watching that tree as it continues to grow.
Its time we take care of trees and the environment
I love trees, and your poetry makes me love them even more! Some lovely turns of the phrase in this piece. 🙂
Oh I really enjoyed your personification here, it made me smile! 🙂
what a delightful read …i love this cute tree…or lion?…lovely lovely lines 🙂