Saturday Poem:

Poem: Old Tree Friend

You were so radiantly green and luscious.

For years you blessed me with your gifts.

You flourished every spring with new promises…

…And you kept each one

in your green leaves,

in the melodies you harbored,

in the shade and the joy your brought us.

In the winter you got naked

to show me the power of vulnerability,

the need for release and cleansing,

the healing force of silence and stillness.

But now, old tree friend,

you have been naked for three years.

You bear no more leaves.

There are no more songs in you.

And I ask myself:

Are you dying?

Where you poisoned

by the pesticides and pollutants

we humans carelessly have unleashed

into the soil, into our own lives?

Or was it that tropical storm in New York,

the one that gave you a beating,

that bully that came at the beck and call

of global warning?

Did it maim you?

Or are you slowly healing,

teaching me to be patient,

to allow my own healing without pushing,

to slow down,

to be fine with being more and doing less,

so that my self-healing body can replenish itself?

Are you still giving me your blessings,

old tree friend?

Even now?

Maria Mar

New York

June 3, 2014

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