26 Trees

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COMMON DOES YOU NO JUSTICE ALDER

Well, at least maddened Sweeney had a good word to say for you: ‘Delightful is thy…

OLD APPLE

For eighty years it stood Weathered, withered At the far end of our garden, Keeping watch.…

THE GRAVEYARD ASH

I’m watching you. Meeting. Singing. Canoodling. Arguing. You’re small, but infinitely beautiful. I yearn to run.…

YNYS ENLLI APPLE TREE

Flat to the salt hewn brick, The Mother tree calls Into the lighthouse’s foghorn yawn, Past…

DAY’S END AND THE BANANA TREE, JAKARTA (AKHIR HARI DAN POHON PISANG, JAKARTA)

Wearied light pushes the thick air past competing calls to prayer and motorway roar while stub-tailed…

ASH

They say the sky-god bleeds and ashes fall in a rain of keys They say this…

THE TWT* BEECH

I have watched the see-saw of lives across time. First, the dare-you children scaling my steely…

ASPEN

you tremble as if on the brink of something my father would love your smooth bark…

BEECH (FAGUS SY LVATICA)

I can’t creep up on you Beech Tree, You hear me scrunch through decades of disintegrated…

HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS

It amused my daughters that a town in distant south-east England shared the name we gave…

BLACKTHORN WINTER

I am no sunlit briar: my thorns are long and septic-sharp. I hold out bare arms…

THE STRONG AND SENSITIVE TYPE

I made my mark on them. Impressed by centuries, catkins and burs, The Borough of Stockport…

RHAMNUS CATHARTICA

Ingleton, Delamere Hay, Dean Road trips Boat trips Hikes Broken but looking up Scarce and still…

FAMILY TREE

Three children, from days gone mouths stretched wide in glee Scattered, posing for the camera on…

DAKPLATAAN, NORTH HOLLAND

Back in Aprilyou seemed almost dead smooth skeleton starfish balancing on a single foot Stretching four…

DOGWOOD

Don’t define me, as you try and control and restrict me. I will not be ignored.…

THE LAST OLD ELM

You stand Raking skywards As generations To and fro To and fro Absorbed in daily busyness…

DRIFT, WOOD

Hiding in plain sight, nettle-bound at a crossroads Some flowers remain, drifting like smoke on dead…

GULMOHAR

Summer’s fierce height and the streets are empty at noon. The air here is warmer than…

SEVEN SISTERS

Taiko drums warble And babble As the forest nymphs Cavalcade down the mountain To take their…

THE CREATION

In a hollow, heeled to the wind bowling in from the Atlantic, a stout tree crouches…

IN RICHMOND PARK A HAZEL ‘TREE’

Interloper Shrub Bush Overgrown weed They might be right The oaks you see I’m short Slim…

LADY-IN-WAITING

Overshadowed by gossiping poplars, crowded by muttering oaks, in Lagan Meadows I almost disregard you. Your…

PILGRIMS

The original pilgrim stalks the retreating ice, trailed by a carpet of crack-nuts, a treasure map…

LORD OF THE FOREST’S LAMENT

The sky is my Father. My mother, earth. I grew up to let light between forest…

A FOOT STEPS FROM THE ORIENTAL HORNBEAM

In a Belfast park, bug bitten beneath your sprawl I crawl inside you guessing the twist…

JUNIPER SKY ROCKET

A queen and her baby joey in pouch Afraid alone in motherhood Persevering assailant sky, taller…

AT THE MARGINS

Along the valley, glacier receding beyond, icefall crack cuts the wind whispering the past that trodden…

COMMON/PRIVATE

Paired, my trees mark gates of the old workhouse (now private residential streets, like many) surround…

TREE OF LIFE

A muster of fowl on every branch A Babel of tongues whistle and clatter Around my…

THE MAJOR

You, in a forest of oaks are the Major Oak, myth heavy, fat with tales, trunk…

THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE FICUS MACROPHYLLA*

Through pale-moon filtered branches drifts a chorus of golden fluid syllables: the Guadalquivir streaming into Atlantic…

WITHIN

Fern’s filigree, looping lianes, wintry light through waving leaves. Dappled, wild-beaten, generous bark, tīekes’ flutter-dance around.…

pear tree

PEAR

Dedicated to goddesses, a tree of life, I bring fecundity, fertility, fidelity when planted. Symbol of…

PLANE TALE FROM THE CITY

Once you came on a flying visit borne on a high wind from Spain a secret…

THE INSIDER

We were loyal fans: us ancient oaks. We loved watching them play. But one day a…

THE AIR WE BREATHE

Wanting a view, we uprooted you Found you a corner, then heard your bark whisper: “As…

TO KNOW

What is a tree? A tree, my love Makes wind true Hands peace a voice Reveals…

CRACKED FOUNDATIONS

White man proclaimed the state by the Old Gum Tree, though the Kaurna were there long…

THE RED THREAD

“I’ve been waiting for you” says young Rowan, “the calendar winds said you would come, salt…

“WE HAVE NOT JUST PLANTED A WOODLAND, WE ARE WATCHING AN IDEA GROW.”

From relict Caledonian forest: The seed of an idea The pride of a community. Rising from…

BROUGHT TO EARTH

They’ve cut down our protector We didn’t mean they should – But broken on the lawn…

THE SILVER BIRCH

Higher! I push because I’m littler, And she told me to. I toil in the shade,…

I COULD HAVE BEEN A CONTENDER…

I might have been a cathedral beam, the keel and prow of a plunging galleon, a…

SPINDLE

Whorl, drop, draw. Fingers tease, Lips release, Gravity’s pull transforms soft chaos. A scrubby shrub. The…

A SYCAMORE IN THE ASYLUM PARK

It was meant to be a humane place. They even planted trees. One looks like the…

IN TARZAN TREE

beyond Goosegog Bush, we crunch cola cubes and dangle like catkins in sharp-toothed leaves. Lighter than…

WHITEBEAM

A boy walked in the woods after dark. He was scared. Even more so when he…

WITCH’S BROOM

Lost lovers once etched a heart around their initials. Your reply: to graft. To annul, unhurriedly.…

PATRIARCH

A bald crown, sideways stoop, shattered limbs: This old boy could go at any time, Collapsing…

HOLLOWING

In this tree I first forgot you For a fair-haired child Who climbed before me. He…

THE OLD MAN OF THE WOODS

Some call it the Old Man of the Woods. For others, it’s the Magic Tree –…

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