PATRIARCH A bald crown, sideways stoop, shattered limbs: This old boy could go at any time, Collapsing…
SPINDLE Whorl, drop, draw. Fingers tease, Lips release, Gravity’s pull transforms soft chaos. A scrubby shrub. The…
“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…
THE RED THREAD “I’ve been waiting for you” says young Rowan, “the calendar winds said you would come, salt…
PEAR Dedicated to goddesses, a tree of life, I bring fecundity, fertility, fidelity when planted. Symbol of…
COMMON/PRIVATE Paired, my trees mark gates of the old workhouse (now private residential streets, like many) surround…
JUNIPER SKY ROCKET A queen and her baby joey in pouch Afraid alone in motherhood Persevering assailant sky, taller…
A FOOT STEPS FROM THE ORIENTAL HORNBEAM In a Belfast park, bug bitten beneath your sprawl I crawl inside you guessing the twist…
LADY-IN-WAITING Overshadowed by gossiping poplars, crowded by muttering oaks, in Lagan Meadows I almost disregard you. Your…
IN RICHMOND PARK A HAZEL ‘TREE’ Interloper Shrub Bush Overgrown weed They might be right The oaks you see I’m short Slim…
SEVEN SISTERS Taiko drums warble And babble As the forest nymphs Cavalcade down the mountain To take their…
DRIFT, WOOD Hiding in plain sight, nettle-bound at a crossroads Some flowers remain, drifting like smoke on dead…
THE LAST OLD ELM You stand Raking skywards As generations To and fro To and fro Absorbed in daily busyness…
RHAMNUS CATHARTICA Ingleton, Delamere Hay, Dean Road trips Boat trips Hikes Broken but looking up Scarce and still…
BEECH (FAGUS SY LVATICA) I can’t creep up on you Beech Tree, You hear me scrunch through decades of disintegrated…
YNYS ENLLI APPLE TREE Flat to the salt hewn brick, The Mother tree calls Into the lighthouse’s foghorn yawn, Past…
COMMON DOES YOU NO JUSTICE ALDER Well, at least maddened Sweeney had a good word to say for you: ‘Delightful is thy…
