from BARDO

The stars are in our belly; the Milky Way our umbilicus.

Is it a consolation that the stuff of which we’re made

is star-stuff too?


– That wherever you go you can never fully disappear –

dispersal only: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen.


Tree, rain, coal, glow-worm, horse, gnat, rock.


Roselle Angwin

Wednesday 11 November 2020

Trees in Autumn (poem)


 

Trees in Autumn
for Sam Wernham

I know the theory
the way xylem and phloem
carry food and waste
from root to branch to leaf
and back to root
how the sap flows up the trunk
in spring, why the tree shuts off
the leaf’s umbilical in autumn.
And still the way those leaves
surrender to the first frosts
of November, give their rainbow
to our eyes, their nourishment
to the soil, remains
one of the wonders of this world
before which miracle I stand
as one receiving benediction.

© Roselle Angwin
 
 

 

 






















2 comments:

  1. an inspiring capture of this autumnal moment slipping amid the tumult of human affairs, so oblivious of the heartbeat of the planet x

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    Replies
    1. Hello Colin! How lovely to hear from you. As I wrote it I was thinking of that Tongues in Trees day 6 years ago in Cornwall. Oh, the colours!

      Hope all is good with you on your land. Rx

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