Greg Gaul | + Follow Poet |
Couplet | + Fav Poem | Comment | Email | Print |

Talking Tree Truth

Come with me to the Talking Tree
a place where spirit and nature can be.
Where science of the forest couples
with ancient traditions of the land.
Where indigenous people learn to live
with trees mindfully hand in hand.

Listen to branches rustling hymns
through silent sounds in their limbs.
Mighty Maples murmur in the breeze
sweet tales of syrup drawn to please.

Trees converse, they do care
sending forest messages everywhere.
Through the air and underground
signals pulse from floor to crown.

Quaking Aspen is known for being
the earth's most massive living thing
these trees united by one root system
the world's largest superorganism.

Trees often act for collective good
doing exactly what they should.
Sometimes they will reset their mast
until the attacking danger's passed.

Internal rhythms set their pace
slower than the human race.
Tree's daily burden that they bare
is they process the world's air.

Did trees learn survival plans proven
in the 360 million years pre-human?
What do 7 billion humans foresee
as the fate for earth's 3 trillion trees?

Fallen trees again live too
vessels that life flows through.
Their wood relives deeply in
buildings, books even violins.

So stand with me in equanimity
and listen for lyrics patiently.
Wait to hear beneath this tree
poised to the sound of "poetree".

Copyright © Greg Gaul | Year Posted 2018

Please Login to post a comment

Jennifer Fenn Date: 3/11/2021 3:58:00 PM As a friend of trees, I love this! Login to Reply Greg Gaul Date: 3/12/2021 11:23:00 AM Jennifer, the science on tree intelligence has exploded in recent decades. Your intuition has not been misspent. Thanks ever so.

Caren Krutsinger Date: 1/23/2019 1:16:00 PM This one hit me in the soul-strings, and appeals to me in ways my conscious mind does not fully understand. I am throwing it onto my FAV list, for when I get better at Poetry maybe I will understand the whole of it. I recognize the wonderfulness of it, Greg. I really do. Login to Reply Greg Gaul Date: 1/24/2019 9:04:00 AM Caren, thank you for your kindness. If you Google Kimmerer, Haskell, Willeben, Simard a new world of trees will open to you. Then, you may realize your passionate poetic voice for tree advocacy. You've mentioned it before. Thanks again for your comments.