WOODLAND SPIRITS (photomorph) & GETTING TO KNOW YOU (non-dream free verse poem) by Roswila

GETTING TO KNOW YOU

"It's some sort of maple," my new friend
says when I comment how I love
the old tree in his Inn's backyard

A field guide to trees unopened
in my backpack, I sit beneath the almost
leaping maple, and watch the shadows
its leaves make as they touch all
that comes within their compass

A nod here, a gesture there,
sometimes a ballet of branches,
the tree is rarely fully still,
its own life openly meeting
the wind's inquiry, the sun's bounty

Later, a privileged viewer, I watch
the tree from my room's window,
its branches bowing in the rain's grace
as if it were accepting a healing
or a mitzvah

I remember I still do not know
this maple's name, but stay the reach
of my hand toward the field guide,
for there is knowing
and there is knowing

And we are on the long path of trees,
one that opens slowly, naturally,
to flourish in its own season,
and needing no name


[non-dream free verse poem written in June of 1993, with tweakings here and there over the ensuing 22 years. Photomorph "Woodland Spirits" (10-7-15 003v3c1) by Roswila]

PLEASE NOTE: in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, the photo accompanying a post is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse, similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku).

There are many other sorts of posts on this blog. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers, as the above is), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.

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until next time, keep dreaming,

[a/k/a Patricia Kelly]
**** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's connections & other blogs: Charter Member of the United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS); ROSWILA'S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA'S TAIGA TAROT; TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT; and THE MARKER TAROT.