Best Branching Poems
The Willow did not always weep,
in summer sun and breeze.
But sorrow once did quickly creep,
amongst the bark and leaves.
For long ago a maiden fair,
would bask beneath the tree.
Each day as she had rested there,
the tree would always see.
The beauty of her freckled face,
the softness of her skin.
The sweetness of her simple grace,
her love it hoped to win.
Reaching out to take the chance,
in all its strength with care.
Dropping low the limb and branch,
to shade the maiden fair.
To hide her from all pain and strife,
to cradle her within.
To help her through her gentle life,
from now until the end.
But soon she cease to come and lay,
beneath the now bowed limb.
Her heart it seems had flown away,
as hope now starts to dim.
So lonely was the branching Willow,
that in sorrow it would stay.
Forever bent and bowed down low,
until this present day.
By Tom Clark, Copyright 2008
Email: tclark97045@yahoo.com
Website: www.tomclarkarts.com
Categories:
branching, loss, lost love, love,
Form:
Rhyme
Lessons of Autumn
Summaries of schooling
— lessons upon lessons guiding
Thoughts in class after class…as bells ring…
Volumes to consider about ways of interpreting…
As the world takes Life on a continuous spin
— round and around — outside and within —
Orbits, tides, seasons, moods, visions…
Lessons taught that Winter is The Dead or Hibernating;
Spring is Re-birth; Summer is The Growing;
And Autumn? Well, students were asked to see
— symbollically, spiritually, scientifically —
That Autumn is the season of Dying, of Leaving.
Autumn, the antithesis of Spring;
Autumn, the harvesting, the taking away
from the earth Spring’s born and
Summer’s grown.
Autumn is the drying, wilting, wrinkling;
The changing from acting to waiting…
And ending.
But, in Autumn, Mother Nature displays
Some greater lessons using God’s deeper palette:
To layer by layer paint, and year by year present
How Autumn’s weeks pass on
Gifting the hemispheres with her splendors
In a glorious prelude to turning with life,
Tier upon tier, into a new year.
All around, Autumn transforms the landscape
From too monochrome into blended tones
Of copper…and red…and yellow aside goldened greens
That shiver before the backing blankets
of violet horizons;
And often the trees for awhile, may even
lean in together to endure
The colder winds and rains pattering.
~ When sweeping Autumn begins,
Leaf by leaf breaks off from branches and twigs…
And, by design created, floats down,
Each laying on a palm of air, to soften
The fall ~
The living in nature all have their seasons…As we
Too, grow on the many branching pathways of our own,
Hopefully learning the value and beauty
In the circling of all time’s teaching seasons…
As each and every leaf sways, wafts, flutters, twirls,
Slowly waltzing down to the waiting earth,
To lay there, with such vibrant color,
Over the dust that made us.
Autumn always,
is time’s heavy curtain,
Taking its cue to fall…
——————————————————————————————————————————————————
(c) sally young eslinger 10/2023
Categories:
branching, autumn, change, color, death,
Form:
Rhyme
A poem starts as a tiny little seed planted in your mind
You nurture it, in time tiny roots start to form
It keeps on growing, branching out in all directions
Bursting from the buds the verses start to form
Until the poem blooms before your very eyes
Finally you are ready to reveal it in its full glory
You show the poem; your confidence blossoms
Some words may still need cultivating and pruning
Kind people will advise of where to trim or weed
My advice to new writers is simple – just have fun
Embrace your growing creativity with all your heart
05~16~15
Categories:
branching, poetry,
Form:
Free verse
Lifesong
This is my song.
It strums the notes
that are rooted
within my being
These cords
filled with love
surround me
carried on wings
to the heavens
swirling about
to engulf
those around me
The melody
plays soft
in the valley low
and echo loudly
the joys
of mountains climbed
Overflowing
my song
springs forth
branching out
its welcome
to those I adore.
Categories:
branching, life, love,
Form:
Free verse
SPREAD LOVE (three haiku)
spread love come on! try!
be you like some growing tree
branching to the sky
no expectation
no! love is a child of mind
no condemnation
love not just giving
oh no! to receive as well
you must be willing
Categories:
branching, lovelove,
Form:
Haiku
Roots of memory battered by erosion
a tempest that edits thought
Aunt Em fears "stupidity's spread"
her words for Alzheimer's
she sometimes babbles like a baby blowing bubbles
She knows her husband's philandering
His escape from gibberish accusations
His exit door, unashamed
"Can you just shut up for once!"
His words that hammer the air
That throb through her thoughts
My Aunt Em
unbracketed
depression that marinates
that simmers in disillusion
The delicacy of her mind
string tied balloon
that drifts away in night
to what's imagined and unseen
breaching all her walls
detachment's silent
branching
Poem composed: June 1, 2021
Contest: Open Poetry (5)
Sponsor; Charlotte Puddifoot
Categories:
branching, anger, betrayal, conflict, leaving,
Form:
Free verse
I am the cornerstone
In the legend of timeless Oaks
That so profoundly stand alone
Magnificent in strength and age
A noble guardian of longevity and resilience
My permanence and stamina
Is willed to rise above all other trees
Yet hold the ground deeply rooted
And take my solemn vow of continuance
As the sovereign commemorative
To the ultimate power of eternal Mother Earth
I enfold the spirit of the Origins
Spread over fields of enduring horizons
Of timeless Suns and Moons
And shifts of transformation
I hold the secret of this beacon of wisdom
This core of breed and birth
For this, the Tree of Life
I am the last - the only future
I am the heritage seed - the acorn
Given to shed with the passing of time
As the chronicle offspring of ancestors
To be reborn in the singular act of purpose
To reach far in my branching to the sky
As the gateway of earth and heaven
April 27, 2020
The Last Acorn Poetry Contest
Sponsored by John Lawless
Categories:
branching, allegory, change, creation, destiny,
Form:
Personification
revelation of revelations!
an ordinary morning til..
discovery of discoveries
brittle chrysalis
upside down, branching
breathing, pulsing
I pause and
inspect the
pupa’s fortress
tight and hard as
childhood memories of
milkweed pods
splaying, splitting, dropping
fragments into the
pungent soil beneath
My birth sac
splits apart
Baptismal waters
run down my legs
he’s going to be a
football player the
doctor predicts.
one last push
spills my babe
onto linen’s
glaring whiteness.
oops, he’s a she
and so beautiful.
A parallel universe
repeats, reflects, completes
an ever changing
life cycle
sunshine dries
black and orange panes
tiny filaments of gossamer
wings shimmer silky white
against the opaque sun
Dad’s car delivers
mom and babe home
their newborn squalls.
her tiny fingers
curl in a tight fist.
each digit is a
prayer bead
chanting its presence.
I gaze in amazement
my mind awhirl
wings and elbows,
antennae and toes
displace space now that
seconds before was
unknown. unclaimed.
Categories:
branching, birth, butterfly, celebration,
Form:
Free verse
I am cool water,
You are a lily, upon ...
I move around and about -
Sustain you, cradle you.
Drink of me ...
And bloom!
You are blossom, soft,
To my supple branching ...
You are fragrance and beauty,
Giggling in the breeze.
Hold tight to me ...
And abound!
I am a mistral, aloft,
You, the waxwing dancing -
Unseen and unknowable, yet ...
I am care and constant.
Press your wings upon me ...
And soar!
~ 1st Place ~ in the "Strand Select 5, Any Form, Any Theme" Poetry Contest, Brian Strand, Judge & Sponsor.
Categories:
branching, analogy, appreciation, beauty, metaphor,
Form:
Free verse
I will grow my hair for you
in this dark and quiet night,
I say it to myself
think about the grass growing for the early spring
and the frozen trees, beautiful and cold, will also grow
to merry land I'm heading
the sail of hair, with the same darkness, flowering your white pillow
in this dark and quiet night,
you wouldn't notice and see
they are growing without sleep
all of them are growing together and will sing, tomorrow
tomorrow they will sing to you silently and hurt my eyes.
still I want to grow my hair for you
from tonight, this moment on,
when the chilly breeze sends me the message of soil
through your window screen I can guess
seeds sprouting, streets branching like wild, rain clouds shedding tears that eagerly,
and all the others coming through, too:
March, April, May, June...spring, summer and every season
days and months and all the years ahead
coming one after another
marching to my dreams
all the future, navigates without waking you up
ah, you'll never know,
you've travelled with me in this boat
naked and sound
before the sun comes out, tomorrow
tomorrow you will only see the cherry blossom
so ripe that fell
snowing our pavement
2011/3/14
Categories:
branching, lovedark, dark, hair, me,
Form:
an empty room
and I stare at the ceiling
blank eyes and a blanker slate,
my poker face
arms spread over my head
all I can see are
whirring blades blurring into
creamy paint and
the small cracks in between
the shadows in my chest,
mahogany
branching out their needles,
ebony
one pricks my eye
red ink taints crisp alabaster
damps it slow, slow, slow
I exhale shaky, shaky, shaky
heavy lids droop to a close
and no one sees
no one can.
Categories:
branching, cry, death, grief, pain,
Form:
Free verse
What if all was one?
What if the many were merely reflections
Of a single thread,
Looping through the fabric of time?
What if time flows not just forward,
But back—
A river branching,
Yet always meeting itself?
Worldlines traced across spacetime,
Every particle, every moment,
A point on an infinite knot.
Are we watching one dance
Through infinite shadows?
Fractals of leaves like trees,
Swarms of birds and fish,
Herds of elk and bison—
A fractal curve repeating endlessly.
Was it all by chance?
Or is it connected?
Are we not one?
What is alignment, if not one?
In every atom, every spark,
Do we find a reflection of ourselves?
Electrons moving forward,
Backward,
Through a sea of possibility—
Do we chase them,
Or are they chasing us?
What if a positron is not born,
But remembered—
An echo of an electron
Returning from tomorrow?
What if Wheeler was right?
What if Feynman saw the truth
In a worldline bent like light,
A single traveler crisscrossing time?
Are these fragments
Not pieces of the same whole?
And what of us?
Billions of worlds, billions of hearts,
Each thinking itself separate,
Yet all drawn from the same source.
Is alignment not the symmetry of being?
Is being not the proof of one?
When we look into the stars,
Do we see them,
Or the reflection of our own worldline,
Stretching through the void?
What if the universe is not many,
But one—
Tracing itself endlessly?
And what if we are not the observers,
But the observed?
Categories:
branching, art,
Form:
Free verse
tree of life
branching out and up
to the stars
posted on September 2, 2018
Categories:
branching, family, hope, life, perspective,
Form:
Senryu
It cocks an eye at me.
I recall, as a boy, I stood
by a window looking at a sparrow
just like this one.
Every feather could be the same,
even the mien and stance
of the bird – the same.
I had never thought of myself
as a tree,
yet all my life
I’ve been branching away
from first roots.
Now I’m gnarled, not the same,
and still changing,
but not this sparrow,
not any sparrow.
Categories:
branching, poverty,
Form:
Free verse
Eternal granite, crystalline scree, agates, boulders, rise
to hills, towering tors,* mutinous mountains, endlessly growing
rising, lifted, then toppled by the fiery rebirth of draconic lava**
Like the cracked shell of an avian egg***/ **** both molten yolk
and watery albumen mark the passage of time, the swings
of the multiverse, they pacify Charon’s passage on the Styx
Seen and unseen the arched openings spiral, poled in ten
dimensions by exigent mathematical quandaries, branching
boles boldly rooting in islands of primordial I, chained
screeching***** shadows infer larger beings who manhandle
the infinite construct of finite man
*Alliteration Repetition of consonant sounds [
** Hyperbole A figure of speech involving exaggeration.
*** Assonance The repetition of similar vowel sounds [A vian, A gg]
**** Simile A figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike
things using like, as, or as though.
*****Onomatopoeia a word that imitates the sound it represents
Categories:
branching, life,
Form:
Verse