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Notes About The Poem

Note: "The Balmville Tree was Methuselah among trees, a gnarled
and furrowed Cottonwood that has lived four times as long as its
kind was meant to live. George Washington rode past it on the way
to his Newburgh, New York headquarters..." NY Times, 09/20/2015

Ends - Interview With a Dying Tree

TREE:

A living thing I was; I graced your land-
three hundred years and more- I stood with pride.
A focal point to meet with friends to stand,
or drive through intersecting roads beside
the wall that sheltered me, your age-old tree-
assumed long-standing for eternity.
"The Heart of Balmville"- often, you called me;
so many grew up in my view's embrace.


COMMUNITY:

Inside your small historic park, you stood
for years preserved in your dear ancient wood.
Your statuesque magnificence, now gone;
our hearts are sad now missing your great limbs.
But with your stump, our memories hold on-
as images of leaves and branches dim.
We took for granted that your vision be
forever etched within this Balmville space.


TREE:

May "Heart of Balmville" live within your hearts-
I, Balmville Tree, at last, from you depart.

deathtreeblank verse

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