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| When your neighbour chops down an avenue of 100 year old trees.. |
I thought all the birds
would leave the sky
the day they cut down the trees –
I cannot forget the sound
a branch makes
as it tears away from trunk –
Gathering up
the flowers which fell like drops
of purple blood from a bruised sky
I heard the persistent call
of an olive thrush –
But, less forgiving
I have cursed
each man who laid axe to wood
into the next generation –
So this is what happened to rip my spirit to shreds this week - Monday to Friday, I watched as these trees which have been a part of my skyline for 18 years were chopped down one by one.. seven trees. My curse may be as ineffectual as Caliban's but I have said the words.
A late entry for Sanaa's November Challenge.
This is incredibly stunning, Kerry! The image of the "flowers which fell like drops of purple blood from a bruised sky" is so striking and conveys the feeling of loss and pain so strongly. I m so sorry to hear about the trees.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for writing to the prompt💜
I am most bitter about the tress, Sanaa... but not everyone places the same value on the natural elements as others do.
ReplyDeleteI have witnessed a stand of magnificent old fig trees which were planted for the Anzacs in the early 1900s destroyed for a tramway which no one is going to use.Karma exists and I know this type of destruction will have consequences for the tree murderers.It is sheer wickedness.
ReplyDeleteGlad I'm not the only tree-hugger around! I know trees are a renewable resource, but I hate to see them being destroyed simply because they are in someone's way.
DeleteTrees are like friends and when they are torn down like that i do understand the pain... not just yours but also the birds... Love the painful focus in that sound a branch torn from the trunk makes...
ReplyDeleteExactly right.. these trees have been my friends.
DeleteKerry, the same thing is happening where I live. I live in an old decrepit apartment building whose one beauty is the wall of trees along the back of the building, and another grove of trees in the front. The new manager is cutting them down. The sound of chainsaws have ripped our hearts to shreds all week. He is not open to reason or negotiation. It is shattering. In a few more years when there is no oxygen left some of these bozos may re-think. But it is terrible to know what we know and to watch the desecration and ignorance go on........
ReplyDeleteIt is heart breaking...so goes progress...we die.
ReplyDeleteThis spoke to me. I love trees; the ones on my property are like my personal friends who I check on every day. Where i used to live, i had neighbors on two sides who were all about trimming the hell out of everything. I used to come home from work and sit in my yard for a few minutes to center myself. One day i went out there to find that the neighbor behind me had cut everything. There were all these vines that grew back there and of course, when he cut them on his side, they all died on my side, too. I felt so sad for days after that. I had Japanese bamboo behind my garage--it's illegal to plant here cos it takes over, but it was there when i moved in. Anyway, I have a mini-forest in my back yard where i am now, too. I inherited a walnut and a maple, and in my 17 years here I have let a pear and several mulberries grow tall as well. They are friends. I always think to them, "No one will harm you as long as I am here." Every now and then some nosey parker will tell me I should cut down this one or that one, but I never will. I can imagine how awful it must have been for you to see that happening and not be able to do anything about it. I'm sorry, friend.
ReplyDeleteThat line "No one will harm you" reminds me of the song form Sweeney Todd!
DeleteThanks for sharing your love of trees here, Shay. I'm glad I am not alone in placing value on vegetation.. but after all, our pagan ancestors believed they had nymph-like spirits residing within, and many cultures recognize the totem power of wood.
Deletethey look healthy. We had a very old 150 (or more) year old tree in our backyard. It overhang the swing set and it was not looking good. It was a heavy wood (cant remember now what kind) and the neighbor refused to cut it down. One morning after a storm I looked out and it had fallen into our yard (of course not his...) I was so mad.
ReplyDeleteWe also had a neighbor who just chopped the tops off of all the old trees - his way of pruning them... They were so ugly! Looked like beheaded broccoli.
I love trees and I feel for you. The imagery of the birds is stunning in this poem. So sorry for the loss of those trees.
All things must die, even trees, and I agree that old trees can be a hazard, when not in the 'wild'. Like everything else on this planet, people feel they must manage them. I just hate the sight of a tree being taken down.
DeletePlease let me know if you continue having problems commenting on my posts...
ReplyDeleteThe day they butchered my favorite tree, I cried. All right, I screamed and threw rocks at the men who did it (I was very young and very angry). I cursed them, too. I still get upset about it, at the way people place value on one type of living thing but not another.
ReplyDeleteMay the curse of understanding the horror of their actions fill their hearts for long while.
I think my hatred of tree-felling stems back to my childhood - we had an avocado tree in the backyard which I lived in.. climbed to the top and claimed every branch. After my brother fell out the tree, my matriarchal grandmother decided it had to be chopped down. No one warned me. I'll never forget the day I came home from school and saw the devastation... it wounded my soul.
DeleteBeautifully said – which is almost paradoxical, considering what it is you are saying. (My new next-door neighbours have been chain-sawing their backyard trees for weeks, ever since they first moved in – horrible!)
ReplyDeleteOh how horrible... Why must people lay claim to land by cutting down trees? It floors me.
DeleteHi Kerry! I can relate to your poem. Even though wood provides much needed warmth in winter months, I still don't like to see trees chopped down. A heartfelt piece.
ReplyDeletep.s. So glad I finally managed to connect through your blog. Lots of catching up to do. :)
This is so powerful in its feeling — the "purple blood from a bruised sky" is such a drastic image which compounds the sadness of this act. And a wonderful ending too.
ReplyDeleteWhile blog hopping to find something new to read, I realized that my previous comment on this post didn't publish somehow. Good to have rectified that! :-)
Agh. Makes my heart sore too to read of it both in your poem and comment. It is a beautiful poem, but such a wretched event. Nonetheless, thanks for sharing that awareness, all best, k .
ReplyDeleteI had missed this. But also feel / felt it. We are a foul species ~
ReplyDelete