writhes bones, skeletally abrasive,
impinging upon warm bodies,
closing in, shadows stalk,
root system of sinister,
disrupted by intense light
figures in white, outside
of temporal, embrace blue
of his shoulders -
roots of sacrifice, present.
led through the forest;
dead wood parted ways
like Moses’ Red Sea, which
can’t hold water when
the King of kings leads.
In winter
The forest becomes invisible
This
Is
When the wood can be touched
Such
Tall
And toppled tenderness
Will not flinch
Beyond
Looking through
The centuries exposed
Forest floor
Floats
With deadfall
So many crisscrossed legs and arms
Windthrow veins
Drained
Of blood
Root system rugged above its quivering skin
Like us all
When life is gone
We are the same
Bone
Remains
Laid down
Foundation
For hares and Perennials
Fungus and fox
Feathered saplings of sun and moon
A risen soul
Someday soon
Erupted
Again
With dahlia sky and spring.
Chicago, you rooted me down while lifting me up. Providing the nourishment I needed since I was a little stump. I’ve grown so much over the years and now ready to brave a new frontier.
My root system traces back for generations. Sprouting offspring that remained planted for decades while weathering life’s gyrations. For most of my time I thought I’d stay grounded too. But the time has come to cultivate fresh soil to sow some seeds anew.
The uprooting is stirring sadness deep in the dirt of my soul. Separating from my forest causing me to question if I’ll still be whole. Realizing why it’s so painful to say farewell is because the amount of strong oak trees I was surrounded by was so plentiful.
The sadness is sure to come and go even after I depart, however my Chicago roots will forever remain entwined around the frame of my heart.
(7-5 foot)
Rain washes the filth on streets
away . It gets rid
of the stink of decay I
do say .The smell aft-
er a rainy day smells for-
rest fresh ,I relay
Rain feeds the plants everyday.
Thru the root system,
plants grow tall ;not wilt away.
If you don’t wear a
rain jacket then you’ll get soaked.
This is not a joke .
I made a paper tree of grief and
those now gone fill up each leaf..
Their faces, their lives, the people
I hold dear, have shaped it's
branches, year after year..
There isn't a root system to feed
my tree.
It's only sustenance is my memory..
Oak tree works her natural magic
Doing her utmost best to spread joy
Attempting to keep peace in the forest
Oozing goodness through her root system
The woods feel oak tree’s compassion and concern
Gleaning her unconditional love from their roots
Intertangled and aware, they begin to feel beloved
Oak tree’s powerful message has permeated their souls.
She is a beauty that stands out for her uniqueness and diversity.
Who is very bold and brave and embraces any changes, nature creates.
Her people put her on a pedestal and crown her as their queen.
Not only for her striking bewitching but mostly for her courage.
She is a phoenix who rises from the ashes.
Her outstanding resilience protects her children,
With her dormant buds, she emerges after she burns down.
Always open to continuous challenges and transformation.
She is admired by the world,
For her endurances and radiances.
And won a lot of titles at international competitions.
But is indigenous to her country and is chosen as a national emblem.
With a perfect root system, she can survive, in any soil.
And still blossom in splendor, the eight wonders.
Of her country and her species, as she rises every morning,
At the foot of Table mountain.
A nut
is just a nut
till planted
in robust healthy soil
Soulfully watered
nurtured
among sympathetic neighbors
fed by solidarity
in co-invested toil
Not necessarily nuts,
yet from this same root
system of passionate EarthTribe
ruts
Anciently established trees
and seas
and sacred nests
of honey bees
Enlightening
and empowering
nut engaging mysteries.
Earth's organisms patriotically
and yet matriarchally wise
wonder if both of these could be true:
1. Poverty and prejudice breed violence.
2. Capitalism and patriarchalism feed conflict.
If so,
is the first
or the second
history's enculturing root system?
And is the Other
our aggressively threatening
viral
chronic
pandemic blossom of oppression?
EarthMothers wonder
if natural family empowering
is also spiritual species enlightening
cooperative Wisdom
inviting humane peace,
restoring divinely inspiring
expiring multicultural justice
more than monocultural JustUs!
means not you Others
too
Mothers gather our global EarthTribe
with less dissonant debate praxis
preferring to invest
in more resilient dialogue practice
forest green
and sky blue communions
instead of ancient cold gold
and dead red competitions.
Personal
and familial
and tribal
and species integrity
grows the maturing root system
of spacious compassion's
wondrously eternal
awesome flower.
Whether considering politics
of power,
or religion
of rightness,
or sexual expression
of sensuality,
Yesterday's healthy truths
represent tomorrow's wealthy beauty
reimaging today's wide spirited trust,
Integrity's deepest empowering beliefs Here
and enlightening
life brightening
Now synergetic feelings.
I can see difference,
but also sameness,
between neurological networks
and internal/external co-empathic sensory experience
InBetween metaphor and analogy
reflecting contrast and cooperative comparisons
between natural perception
and spiritual feelings
Of confluence/dissonance
with and without
all that is Holy
and Dissonant
Persistently
devilishly against all we feel holonic
organic
synergetic
interdependent
creolizing
integral.
A root metaphor
for this win/win creative intention
invites a seed's natural potential
to experience a healthy spiritual root system
embedded in a polyculturally wealthy experience
of naturally spirited EarthGaze
Nights and Days
for co-invested wellness
of universal health
ConCelebrations
for unitarian wealth
ComPassions.
Holy EarthSpirit
is our seed bearer.
Our blue celestial universe
could lack nothing
In meadows of green sweetgrass
She enlightens repose.
Into living waters of recomposure
She bears then leads us;
There S/He revives Earth's compassioned soul.
She guides me
by polypaths of virtue
not forsaking Her sense-rooted story.
Though we pass through this gloom
doom river valley,
I fear no mountainous trauma;
Within me
your rooted integrity
and your well-seeded womb are here,
to hearten and enlighten us.
You prepare a wealth gardened table
between us
under the eyes of my predative
and hoarding enemies;
You anoint our capital driven values
with multicultural oil,
my catholic creolizing communion cup
brims cooperatively over.
Ah, how active hope enlightenment
and empowering love pursue us,
every day and night of Earth's living systems;
My home,
the recreation of ecowomanist
re-imaged Yahweh,
As long as Earth light power
revolves around Sun's well-blessed
EarthTribe Womb.
The giant oak sprawled into the sky
In pure wonderfulness her phalanges reaching
wider and farther than other oaks in the forest
Squirrels leapt from her twiggy limbs,
Barely making it sometimes, and chattering
with glee as they perpetually caught themselves
Robins, cardinals, wrens, sparrows and blue jay
took the lower apartments. Acorns readily fell as
they knocked to borrow each other’s stories
Her underground root system sturdy and mighty
Like a giant octopus pushing past the Kansas clay
It was tentacles all along
faith each passing day
our love grows ever stronger
root system deeper
AP: Honorable Mention 2022
Which is the truest measure of a life,
the leaf's annual departure
into Earth's compost pile?
Or the tree's root system
of timeless regenerational reforestation
slow-growing interdependent organic species?
Yes.
Both short-flowered leaf and root flowing systemic,
Left-patriarchal
with Right-matriarchal.
Sub Categories
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.