Quick Word with a Friend
Hello hemlock tree
your feathery cones
sharp twigs
& soft needles
dance with
the breeze, sway
in spring.
O hemlocktanne
with your delicate
garland of old
miscasts & orange
bobbers strung
as solstice gifts
in summer.
Ever green hemlock
your dusky hue
among maples
beckons through
the clinging steam
of hot breath
in autumn.
My love, my tree
stands in the sky.
If they do lift the level
of your lakeside home
it will drown the bank
you will die
you will die
in winter.
14 thoughts on "Quick Word with a Friend"
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You are definitely a poet of the trees. This poem is clean and elegant. I can feel the intimacy, especially with the line: My love, my tree/stands in the sky.
through feathery cones
with needles hemming
locked in brittle time
through final breezes
with last sap leaking
out her winter mind
wonderful. the only thing missing (to me) was some type of mushroom… for a hint of what comes next.
Love it………for you 🙂
What comes of your fall
After discontented winter
Mycelium fruit does spring
Oh the delicacies of summer
the fungi ferries
dark forest hearts
This is perhaps my favorite stanza:
“O hemlocktanne
with your delicate
garland of old
miscasts & orange
bobbers strung
as solstice gifts
in summer.”
because I know that tree too well. This is beautifully written, Coleman, a love letter. The matter of factness of the last couple of lines hurts the heart.
Thanks Bill 🙂 I’ve hung a little of that garland myself. Lolol
Lots of details in here. It gets better with each read!
Thank you jst. That right there is what I try for above all else 🙂 thank-you
I like the tenderness of this. I was half-expecting a mention of hemlock’s storied poisonous properties but that might have destroyed the mood 😉
Yeah, nit having grown up with these trees this one got me too.
I’ve gone down the rabbit hole a couple times w this and there seems to be a few theories on why the tree and the plant( which is basically a carrot ) have the same name. Strange thing words are.
I love your tenderness for this tree. I love trees too but don’t know as much as I’d like.
Beautiful!
This is poetry.
It is just crazy good
and beautiful too
and heart-breaking too, because
you make us love the Hemlock tree,
Thank you!
Ann, the yuchi people have a word for you are welcome that also means thank you simultaneously.
Salakadita.
From me 🙂 and the tree (stands in sky)