Sunday 4 April 2010

The Yew Tree






The Yew Tree.



I am formed from things arcane,
Scraps of sun, ribbons of rain,
An inch of ground, skyward bound.

And Nemeton was once my name,
As naked you sought my shade,
Before you betrayed my blessings.

Once came a man who became a god,
Nailed upon my bark as if on a cross,
Nine nights in pain, reborn with runes.

Now I guard the gates of death,
Where your coffin finally rests,
And our roots and bones entwine.

I have watched this world you walk,
And record the words you talk,
Upon the pages of my verdant wings.

Now you worship only books,
The sermons of sombre rooks,
Blind to the truth they contain.

I am yew, and you are me,
Your life and all my leaves,
Each breath we share, a prayer of being.

And when I fall, then so shall you,
So think of this when you hew,
All my poetry from your prison.






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3 comments:

beautiful wood said...

wood veneers

yew is a lovely wood, it looks a bit like pine but much nicer and a hard wood.

one of the most overlooked of all wood finishes.

far nicer than mahogany which in my view is a poor substitute for rosewood, if you are looking for a red wood.

Anonymous said...

takes a long time to grow though...I ma be wrong ..

but I enjoyed the poem..

sam7707uk said...

I really like the first verse and a couple of the others are OK too ....

Enjoyed the poem but would liked to have seen more verses using rhyme like the excellent first verse ...

Guess its a problem though ... the difficult demands of making everything rhyme can distort and over simplify the poem away from what you are trying to achieve ...

Have read other poetry here too that I like even
though there was no attempt to use rhyme ...
Have you removed some of the earlier stuff
because I couldn't find it when I looked ...

Anyway .. good luck with your poetry and I look forward to reading more .....