April Is National Poetry Month

Since I am a fan of poetry I will be posting some of my favorites here this month.  I am especially fond of free form poetry.  You can say whatever you want with free form, and there are no stresses about rhyming or word counts.  Free form sort of reminds me of lava from an exploding volcano.  The eruption (the idea) happens, then the lava flows wherever it wants, all the while having a goal.  It flows around objects and under and through them, but ultimately lands far below where it started, with a meaningful ending, like a new island perhaps.  Such is free form poetry, ending with a meaning, or a feeling, a spiritual island.  I hope you enjoy.

 

acrylic on w/c paper

 

 

LIVING TREE

Robert Morgan

 

It's said they planted trees by graves

to soak up spirits of the dead

through roots into the growing wood.

The favorite in the burial yards

I knew was common juniper.

One could do worse than pass into

such a species. I like to think

that when I'm gone the chemicals

and yes the spirit that was me

might be searched out by subtle roots

and raised with sap through capillaries

into an upright, fragrant trunk,

and aromatic twigs and bark,

through needles bright as hoarfrost to

the sunlight for a century

or more, in wood repelling rot

and standing tall with monuments

and statues there on the far hill,

erect as truth, a testimony,

in ground that's dignified by loss,

around a melancholy tree

that's pointing toward infinity.

 

 

.....Have you hugged a tree today?