Elizabeth Stanforth-Sharpe
I heard them, only yesterday. Trees spinning yarns,
Yabbering stories older than the oldest
Tales; uttering exquisite arborial poetry.
Singing soft, soothing lullabies in whispered, wind-long breaths,
Sighing at the soft snow settling on muttering branches.
Then gently resting, spent, humming contentedly.
Tickled by a passing breeze they, contentedly,
Laughed shivers of green and gold; giggling yarns
Tumbling blush scarlet ribbons from flirtatious branches.
At first light, each tree stands tall and chants its name, its oldest
History; its ancestral roots woven in poetry;
A radicle chorus of rustling, murmuring breaths.
They are gossips and grumblers; seasoned branches
Cataloguing, with gnarled-weary creaking breaths,
Every ache, pain, twisted sinew and knot, the oldest,
In wrinkled wrapped, year-thickened coats, contentedly
Smiling with earthbound wisdom, sagely nodding at yarns
Of fierce fought battles with gusts and gales. Poetry
That rustles beneath the dawn chorus of birds. Yarns
That, through whispering leaves, unfurls the oldest
Adventures. In sotto voce offerings, my breaths
Find their pace again. The pause on the threshold. Poetry
That crackles from old brown leaves and the snap of dry branches
Gives strength for the journey. Trees speak contentedly;
Starlight glistening language of wise poetry.
Speech that shudders healing through sapien branches,
Takes the fractious out breaths and transforms them into yarns.
Voices waiting for the waking balm kiss of the in breaths.
Placeholders, brushing conciliate peace, contentedly
Re-storying the adrift and broken with oldest
Narratives. Truths of Kathak dance through the branches.
Ancient rhapsodes stitching songs from needled breaths
Stretched like pliant rods. Sapling supple threads sewn. Oldest,
Sacred performers pulling wood-silk strands, contentedly
winding woodland mysteries that code the world with light. Yarns
Of magi, griots and shamans; tree poetry;
A seer’s zephyr of transformational breaths. Yarns
Contentedly old as time. Poetry
Rooted in the oldest bard’s consecrated branches.
