Old Trees (2008 Version)

Another reflection on loss and the passing on between the generations

 

The Old Trees (2008 Version)

 

The old trees fall

while neighbors tremble

at sudden swaths of sky.

 

In the rumbling

saplings seek cover

beside felled trunks.

 

Sunlight sprays

sharply light on sparse

mid-life limbs stretched

 

to frame a pale canopy

for slender youth

against an unrelenting sky.

 

Some elders thin and wither,

shedding motes of majesty

‘ere roots loose ground’s grip.

 

Some shadowed children

never launch strong limbs

to meet the open sky.

 

But in the great green forest

new champions always reach

great branches heavenward

 

and memories of the ancients

give succor young and old

in the rise and in the fall.

Author's Note

Do you like this version better or the original?

Reviews

[KONSHU]

I spent a lot of my childhood playing the the woods of New England, and I can see every path I ever walked in these words. You really forced me to see those trees in a very different way. Animated with life, and heavily falling with the weight of death, giving way to the young and srong. I will have to look up the original to answer your note, but this is really a powerful and gripping poem. Outstanding!!! Peace...

[~crazy Beautiful~]

this piece was very visual, and a great metaphore for the passing of generations
my favorite lines
"Sunlight sprays

sharply light on sparse

mid-life limbs stretched"
nice work
thank you for entering my contest