ashes to ashes
i always knew you could sing
your very existence is music,
wind rustles and breeze whispers
howls of moan and humming creak
i hear you finger tapping tunes
in the night of dark glass
against the cold window between us
i always knew it was you
absorbing years and belting them
back out as harmonized sustenance
as a teenager i would run to you
cry on your rough-cloaked shoulder
while you plucked my brokenheart strings
you always listened and i always remembered
to look up into the green gold eyes
of your long standing deep rooted ballad
to find the leaf of your only regret:
your eternal inability to waltz
in the wallflower forest of forgotten
i’d stand up then, arms placed just so
on the shoulders of a stand-in barkcloth partner
and box step through the shade
of your resonant silence
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This poem was inspired by THIS video I came across featuring music
that was created from the rings in a slice of tree trunk, it’s enchanting.
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Also linking in over at dVersePoets for Poetics, join us!
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May 6th, 2014 at 1:35 pm
the leaf of your only regret…love that…leaning into the tree…knowing they will listen…i have always had an affinity for the woods…and you capture that well…
May 6th, 2014 at 2:24 pm
beautiful ~
May 6th, 2014 at 3:11 pm
there’s so much intimacy in this… good to know that they always have an open ear to listen…
May 6th, 2014 at 3:12 pm
Very interesting and pretty. >KB
May 6th, 2014 at 3:16 pm
A tree — something to lean on, a friend to take you through life… the rough bark to dry your tears.. and those green eyes.. it’s a tree you can never leave.
May 6th, 2014 at 3:28 pm
I can relate to the girl in your poem. It is a very beautiful image, caring and lyrical. I am enjoying the different things everyone is bringing to this theme of trees. Your idea of trees singing and making music is brilliant. Indeed!!
May 6th, 2014 at 3:54 pm
You add great depth to the realm of tree-hugger; love your lines /i hear your finger-tapping tunes/in the night of the dark glass/against the cold window between us/ The forest does sing for those who listen, but how grand to now be aware they can waltz as well.
May 6th, 2014 at 4:20 pm
Smiling at the finger tapping tunes. There is something so comforting about a tree. Love, love, love
“to find the leaf of your only regret:
your eternal inability to waltz
in the wallflower forest of forgotten”
. . . and box stepping through the shade, a perfect ending.
May 6th, 2014 at 4:33 pm
beautiful
May 6th, 2014 at 4:57 pm
Oh how I love this poem, especially the two closing stanzas, where the tree wishing to waltz “in the wallflower forest of forgotten”….and then the narrator “box-step(ping) through the shade of your resonant silence”. So good!
May 6th, 2014 at 5:06 pm
Such a beautiful atmosphere created in your words…. the idea of tree as a companion is lovely. 🙂
I specially liked the ending.
May 6th, 2014 at 5:19 pm
I specially like this part as it brings comfort Kelly:
you always listened and i always remembered
to look up into the green gold eyes
of your long standing deep rooted ballad
May 6th, 2014 at 5:36 pm
I am reminded of a gnarly old oak whose roots I used to clamber in and around whilst I waited for a bus into town with my mum, way back in the mid 1970s. I used to tell her secrets too… 🙂 A simply lovely poem.
May 6th, 2014 at 6:58 pm
Absolutely love the personification here – the richness of affection, enjoyed it thoroughly.
May 6th, 2014 at 8:54 pm
we always had fruit trees, and one cherry tree was like an old friend. When the breeze is just right the trees share their secrets.
May 6th, 2014 at 9:44 pm
Wow. Just immeasurably lush in tenderness.
May 6th, 2014 at 11:25 pm
a kinship you’ve given us
May 6th, 2014 at 11:32 pm
A beautiful hymn sung in praise of our precious friend….great lines
May 7th, 2014 at 12:12 am
So very beautiful! I love, ‘long standing deep rooted ballad’ and the closing stanza is so lovely!I liked this very much!
May 7th, 2014 at 2:47 am
A sympathetic and inspired response to the prompt. Delightful.
May 7th, 2014 at 3:20 am
That is most of us love to do when we are said if u had grown up like that…….. I just love trees and plant…… sad I dont have a garden for myself……..
May 7th, 2014 at 3:22 am
Nature has beauty in every bit of it.
May 7th, 2014 at 5:11 am
The personification works very well. It feels you are writing to an old time friend.
May 7th, 2014 at 5:40 am
What a fascinating concept – I loved that little video link – and your poem combines sound and silence, question and response, a sort of unspoken communication.
May 7th, 2014 at 8:10 am
I love the suggestion of the love and intimacy you project in this poem. Very well done.
May 7th, 2014 at 5:23 pm
Can you adore a poem? I adore this one. Wow!
May 7th, 2014 at 7:38 pm
“I always knew your could sing”..I always enjoy listening to the whispers of the trees..enjoyed
the feel of this poem
May 11th, 2014 at 9:17 am
oh man. i cried. i really did. i’d glanced at this earlier in the week, and could feel right then i would cry, so i put off the real read until this morning, and i was right. “to find the leaf of your only regret: your eternal inability to waltz . . . ” oh my.