tell me your story.
You have seen a thousand years
of seasons come and go,
witnessed the wilderness
turn into towns,
watched sadly as the wild ones
- those who have survived -
retreated more deeply into the forest,
growing ever more afraid
as the Two-Leggeds
steadily advanced
with their chainsaws
and their heavy tread.
You have wept as your sisters
turned into houses for humans
instead of birds
and small furred creatures.
Tell me about the time
when you were young,
when wolf pups huddled
among your roots,
and bears scratched their backs
on your rough bark,
those days
when all the wild creatures
spoke to one another
in the same language:
moose and bear and deer.
Tell me about a time
when life was securely lived,
when the word "wild" meant "home",
when safety and the seasons
were all you knew.
Tell me your ancient tale, Old Tree,
and it will be
a fairytale
to me.
for Shay at The Sunday Muse
You spoke beautifully for the ancient tree ....
ReplyDeleteI so love the stories trees can tell. I have such a fondness for oak trees because I grew up surrounded by them. They heard my cries and they taught me how to stand when storms come.
ReplyDeleteI love the poignant questions and the history of the trees that you have brought to our hearts. Truly magnificent Sherry!!
ReplyDeleteHow did I know you would do the tree? ;-)
ReplyDeleteI am sure the tree has wonderful stories to tell. It has experienced so much!
ReplyDeleteI am not surprised the tree would speak directly to your heart. Yes, the tree I am sure has many stories for waiting ears. I know you feel it's pain.
ReplyDeleteTell me your ancient tales
An ancient wisdom we could all use!!!
ReplyDeleteSherry, you write about nature as if you understood her. I often wonder when a tree was firt planted as well as what and whom it has seen during its long life.
ReplyDeleteThis reads as if you were listening to the tree whispering to itself.
ReplyDeleteI just commented to Linda about my fascination with ancient trees and how I wished they could talk ... and here you are speaking for them, and beautifully so! Sadly they have witnessed our abuse of all that nature has to offer.
ReplyDeleteThis is utterly beautiful. If trees could speak, humans would be silent.
ReplyDeleteI love to read of the Old Tree's early life attributes. It is interesting to visit and old tree and try to relate to it's life span events.
ReplyDeleteBTW, sometimes I relate to that tree, telling of the way things were and how some might still be saved, each scar has a story too. Nice reading, Sherry, lit makes one think of our carelessness with nature's goodies.
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I have a scar in the top of my head from when a careless bike ride took into the eves of a corrugated steel roof, slicing all along until I got the bike stopped. Or of how my grandmother died of the flue when Mom brought it home from school, 1917 or 18, etc, etc.
ReplyDelete..