NaPoWriMo 2019 – Day 29
On Being a Sister to Trees
Long to sit, knees bent
beneath a tree
skin to bark,
listening as passing breezes
rustle overhead leaves.
Whispering bits of her story
of standing still,
always rooted in same place
yet more than willing to share, to learn
from passing strangers.
Birds, bees, insects, and squirrels,
sometimes a restless human like me,
willing to pass long moments
seeking to find what might be learned
from a tree.
Elizabeth Crawford 4/29/2019
Process Notes: Image is the first thing I tried to draw digitally using a brand new paint program. Thought it was time to bring it forward and let it breathe again. Many, many years ago, I defined myself as a Sister to Trees and a Maker of Stones. Used to make stones from polymer clay, carving words in them before putting them in oven to harden. Used them in my writing classes for starting points. The longing in that opening line is very real. My curved and shrinking spine, arthritic hips and knees, and swollen feet wouldn’t allow that luxury anymore. But there was a time when I sought it out and learned a great deal from the experience. That might have been the fresh oxygen trees provide to their surroundings, which I’d gladly partake of again.
Soul's Music 
I love the idea of being a sister to a tree! It’s very real and very spiritual. I’m a big fan of oak trees, especially since I spend most of my days here, admiring the old oak in front of my window. Your words remind me of the famous poem, “Trees” by Alfred Joyce Kilmer, who sadly was killed in France during WWI. (I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree). 🌳
Thank you, Marianne. I’m of a mind that all of nature contains some sort of spiritual message. I’ve written about that in two pieces of Mythopoesis. https://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/the-call/ and https://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/love-loves-difficult-things/ if you are interested in reading them. I am of Native American descent by way of my maternal grandmother. Didn’t really know that until I was an adult and started putting pieces of memory together. Needless to say, I then engaged in tons of reading on the subject matter. And the one thing that I found pivotal to my own sense of things, was the idea that humankind is only one aspect of a natural world that constantly speaks to spiritual aspects to be found all around us. As far as Kilmer’s poem goes, yes I’ve read it and enjoyed it. However, my mentor was a Walt Whitman scholar and I fell in love with breath line and internal rhyme. Have tried end rhyme, but mine always comes out sounding sing-songy like a nursery rhyme. But, that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a poet that excels at it.
Elizabeth
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beautiful Elizabeth. the granting of beingness in your poem has a quality easier for me to recognize than describe. the sensation was lovely. thank you.
Thank you, Neil. Your comment is lovely as well.
Elizabeth
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