Monday, February 1, 2010

The Evergreen

This poem is about a tall evergreen that grows on the property line, probably more my tree than my neighbors'. His house is just about minimum distance to the line as is my garage. This line is defined in the front and side by a fence buried in ivy and overgrown with a stand of bamboo. Then toward the back, this tree towers over everything nearby. It has dropped branches occasionally, sometimes on my neighbor’s house and once in the yard between us, more or less on the bamboo. So far it has not dropped a branch to my side. This may be because I am to the southwest of the tree, the side that gets more sun. Perhaps this extra light makes healthier branches.

Oh yes. I did dump the next poem as I said I might. This is the one after.

The Evergreen

I fret. The tree is
too close and it has twice now
dropped branches safely.

Someday it will drop
a dark arrow through my roof.
I can cut it down,
save my property,
but that squarely puts the dart
deep into my heart.

You told me real
fearlessness is the product
of a tender heart.

March 27, 2009 12:37 PM

11 comments:

  1. Hmmm. Many such trees border our property, as we live in a cul-de-sac and thus neighbor 5 yards. Sometimes it is my tree, the damsel in distress, sometimes it is my tree the villain. Always, the tree is worth the trouble in either direction.

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  2. Poor trees -- they must wonder why we are so foolish to build where their limbs may ache to fall....

    Yours is a tender heart, I believe.

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  3. I have a feeling "my" tree was there first.

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  4. very interesting!!

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  5. We have a tree that could fall on our house. Don always says, he will cut it down one day. But i look at the tree lovingly and know it will never go.

    xox
    How was work?

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  6. Work is going okay. Thanks for asking.

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  7. I have something very cheesy to say :D


    "This poem is about a tall evergreen that grows on the property line, probably more my tree than my neighbors'"

    The tree belongs to no one. Let that tree be. :P

    It probably chose your neighbour to dump on and chose you to scare :P

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  8. Vinisha, I have no problem with that kind of thinking, though I would suggest that trees have a different set of values and you may have made this tree a little more human than it is. I love Tolkien's Ents and the idea that tree thought is very slow and probably much deeper for it.

    We have no concept with which to recognize mind without brain and thoughts that take days to complete. Whether trees also have emotional lives like mammals do is quite problematic since that is based on electro-chemical systems that are either absent in trees or are so different that they are hard to recognize.

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  9. :( You spoilt my fun entirely. Sure, their living is a whole lot different and making them a little human was probably to my benefit, but, allow me to make the mistake of using my creative imagination and probably, if I was a good enough cartoonist, I could have drawn a picture of you running helter skelter when the tree goes "Boo!"

    :D Sorry, unfortunately, I have had a really teary day and feel like pulling legs just a tad bit

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  10. Oh my...if a tree said something definite to me, I would probably be most grateful. I strain to understand my neighbors. I have a couple tall trees near my house and I certainly hope they behave well. I would love the guidance they might have for me. So I hope they might say more than "boo".

    As for running...OMG. Those days are over pretty much. I don't really even have a brisk walk.

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  11. Oops. As for your teary day, ouch. I am sad to hear you have some difficulty in your heart life. I hope for you an easier time.

    Shanti, shanti, shantihi.

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The chicken crossed the road. That's poultry in motion.


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