Blown along this windward stretch
Dressy shadowy
As light of step, skied a-twirl
Savour each birch-girl.
Swept, enriched, up in whose fame
Dazzles ghostily
Now to whose art converted
Pavlova's; well-bred.
flaky white chipped bark
distinguished among others
full of beauty
Ramble Through a Birch Forest
the path is straight and narrow
not a rock in the way
birches as far as the eye can see
their trunks, like tall slender
asparagus stalks, reach skyward
their caps, leaves bunched
at the top like celery
I look at their white bark
imagining sweet birch beer
distilled or the sturdy canoes
dug out of tough trunks
I would like to stop
and ponder these things
but I must keep my date
with you
A BIRCH TREE'S CONFIDENCE
A young tree stands tall
Rooted to the woodland floor
Thinks itself immune
To all the struggles in store
As ignorant as a child
THE WEEPING WILLOW'S LAMENT
In the end, all trees
Must surrender to decay
Seep into the dirt
Shut their eyes and slip away
It’s a fate none can escape
Rippling soil sways in ways
In ways a maestro drunkenly
Displays their baton, Earth in
Perfect fluid Earthen motion
It conducts and plays en tandem
The symphony of syrup season
Rings through Vermont’s silken air
Each movement weaves effortless
In majesty.
Hickory smoke leaves the sap house
The chorus of birch bark harkens
Weaving through the chimney’s maw
A mirror of the lone sugarmaker
His jaw a practiced spile, he is
The arch in the evaporator
With a puff of Cuban Affair kush
He admires the beauty of the
sugarbush
springs fresh birch branches
srtrong enough for fat squirrel
eating an acorn
crumpled peeling bark
exposes trees true beauty
without any flaws
Birch wood trees,
Black and White
Green grass grows,
fresh
Flowers bloom,
but hide
Sun gleams yellow,
Thoughts take flight
I clutch at the magazines,
the letters, the newspaper cutouts
I look through your old notebooks
tracing over rows and rows of numbers
a library catalog, a stamp
l’m looking for something more personal
something that could make me feel you again
there are birch trees everywhere you look
I missed them, I longed for them
almost as much as I longed for the time
when you would hug me, pat me on the head
and call me by a new name
every time I saw you it would be something different
it’s been years, but I only just became ready
to take this step, to forgive and forget
I prayed you get relief and you got it
but now I understand why they wanted to keep you for a little longer
why they wouldn’t let you go
I stare at the birch tree, right next to your old apartment building
and wonder if you would stare at it too
you probably didn’t, you didn’t care for them like I do
you’d just pass by and get home to your books
the books that lay in my room now
the books I grab, I flip through
in hopes of proving that you had once existed
that you weren’t just writing on a page
I could look at this painting
forever, oh Klimt was a talent
lake side with birch trees is where I would like to be
beside the dappled blue still water . . .
picking yellow buttercups
bluebells and purple larkspur growing wild, oh beautiful
oh dream
so sublime
Klimt takes me away
to a serene place in my mind
to a divine green dream of nature and tranquility
but the painting- I must leave behind
for I think the gallery would miss it . . .
though when days are rainy and I am forlorn, I always go
to view
the beauty painted
The forgotten ramblings of an old acorn,
Will never become anything.
A mighty and tall tree,
Will not yield to the axe below.
But it still falls.
The white leather creaks
As damp pith breathes
Thin and strong
Against a solemn sky.
As branches again take
Punishment from northern winds
The trunk stands firm
Steeling itself for the assault ahead.
Straight despite the brutish
Harsh and relentless gusts
The leather flakes and peels
Like a snake shedding skin.
Ready for the new birth
Another year is coming
A cycle of the earth and sun,
Rain, wind, snow, all will befall it.
Evermore the silver birch
A symbol of strength through adversity
Stands tall with smoke like branches
Ready to add another ring to its life.
bare birch tree swaying
blizzard blows away branches ~
chiding chickadee
5th December 2022
For Tania Kitchin's "Winter Nature Themed Haiku" contest
Buttery affection rains from the skies
Nurturing the tulips and daffodils
Bursts of joy upon the earth, to arise
With wonderous smiles, sunny thrills
Robins and wrens wrestle with the wind
Laughing and crooning, inspiring serenity
Warring with the windchimes, chagrined
By the swirling charms of love’s amenity
Oaks and birch whisper to the affections
Offering their silent hope with a caress
From the budding leaves with selections
For springtime reveries hearts profess
Spring Rhyme - 8-12 Lines Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Tania Kitchin
April 26, 2022
The birch tree bends
over the abandoned playground
its papery thin bark peeling
exposing the stark white wood beneath
A few brown withered leaves
that stubbornly refuse to fall
continue clinging to its branches
fluttering in the frigid winter wind
like fringe from the tattered shroud
of a lonesome ghost
searching for fellow lost souls
looming over the empty swings
and the slide buried beneath
a blanket of snow
while the children who
romp and sing songs in its shade
gaze wistfully out of the window
waiting patiently for spring
as they sip from mugs of hot cocoa
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