You and I have only one thing to do: Saw the trunk through.

           Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Not So Far As The Forest”

 

For my daughter




Family Tree

 

The second summer of its dying.  This year

There are less leaves, the smaller brittle limbs

A little scattering of deadfall in the brown grass.

So few elms are left now; one of many things

I had taken for granted and for ever once.

 

Some slow poison is rising in the sap,

Where the splintered bark has fallen away

The bare wood grown soft;  there must be

A hollow now where the heartwood was.

And I know something of that, and you,

 

Looking up to where the trunk branches

And I see you now who I never saw then,

Perched on the periphery of my life

As those you watched were on yours;

Falling and fallen into our separate lives.

 

Thinking of firewood I brought my axe,

But I cannot bring myself to lift it.

With each log in the hearth I would hear

Its echoes, the long season of longing

That once lifted you into the leaves.

 





Poetry by countryfog
Read 416 times
Written on 2011-08-26 at 17:38

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I love 'a hollow now where the heartwood was'--pure poetry. And the way you follow the line up with 'I know something of that,...' Make me think of the best of Robert Frost, whom I adore.

Good work as always.

Regards,
William
2011-08-27


jenks The PoetBay support member heart!
this is excellent.

thanks to edna i am deep into american poets again...a place i love to visit.

i love how you take us from bough to bough.
2011-08-26


Rob Graber
PS: I'm quite a fan of ESVM: her sonnet cycle "Epitaph for the Race of Man" helped motivate my PLUTONIC SONNETS. She sure could write a sonnet!
2011-08-26


Rob Graber
Well done! In nice weather I frequently have lunch with friends in the shade of an enormous ancient elm by a creek running through the Truman U campus; I'm glad some of the elms made it.
2011-08-26