Take a Tree
Take a tree
and its bond to the Earth,
its spell upon the sky
its stretch and swing among the squirrels.
That tree is all trees,
powerful without a pulse,
slow to hunger and slow to react.
It sleeps when it wakes,
receiving its action even when in full bloom.
Somebody climbed that tree,
wanted to build a fort but didn’t,
just sat between a strong forked branch
and looked across and down.
Another touched that tree, its crust trunk,
the folds and curves of its sensual permanence.
In that touch was found a different measure of time,
a way to stand back and wait for growth.
In that touch was a shifting,
deeper than meditation,
connecting below and above rooftops.
Take a tree, in any season, at any time of the day,
the alien dimensions it moves between,
its response to the moon.
Knock on that tree softly and it will open.
It will greet you,
invite you in and show you a place
without dance, without disorder –
primordial creation, a wellspring-confidence,
a dream that has no dreamer.
Copyright © 2020 by Allison Grayhurst
amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst
.
.
First published in “BlogNostics” September 2020
.
You can listen to the poem by clicking below:
