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My Old Beech

This tree

is old

 

It knows its time but has grown in the ancient hedge

escaping the billhook and the thresher blade

standing 'gainst the farmer's pledge

that every stem should be neatly laid

 

This tree

is wise

 

It is as large as it needs to be and no more

its spread has grown to contain all of its leaves

and each year it grows to store

just as many leaves as it receives

 

This tree

is sound

 

This great old tree smells just as any beech tree should

and the grey bark feels smooth on the trunk to me

my judging hand leaves its wood                                             

untroubled by my discourtesy

 

This tree

robs my garden

of summer sun

 

🌷(2)

treesbeecheshedgeshedgingshadefelling

◄ The Promise

From Two Windows ►

Comments

<Deleted User> (18474)

Tue 20th Nov 2018 21:39

I'm glad. I didn't think you did.
Someone who could write those first two verses couldn't.
Beno.

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Chris Armstrong

Tue 20th Nov 2018 20:00

Just had to switch on my computer and reply! Thanks for your heartfelt comments which I love... as they show that the poem really works in the way that I intended! And, No - I would never cut down a tree just because it shades my lawn! Or at all, really! thanks again!

<Deleted User> (18474)

Tue 20th Nov 2018 18:41

You didn't cut it down did you?

<Deleted User> (18474)

Tue 20th Nov 2018 18:31

Oh dude! I started reading and I was loving it, loving it a lot.
It sounded like it was wrote by someone who loved this tree. Like I love my oaks and hazel and ash trees in my garden. Some one who respects the fact it's survived man's destructive capacity. Someone who appreciates how it only takes what it needs and gives back what it can.
Then it comes.
Is he weighing it up for the chop in your last verse coz he wants a nice lawn and a boarder of bizzie Lizzie's?
The last 8 words broke my heart. ?
I hate this poem now.
Great skill here, but I still hate it. ??

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