The Lonesome Pine

This Pine tree stands alone

Half way up Newlands Pass

Not planted by man

Nor is it a native tree

 

It is birds that bore the seeds

Nature did the rest

Germinated the seed

Provided the food

 

Surviving through

Wind and rain

Hot sun; cold snow

For years untold

 

No other tree

Or shrub

For company

Has it

 

Free of pollution

Traffic noise

Smokey chimneys

Are not for it

 

Reviews

[charlie]

Here is a basic yet deep picture of an entity with it's "is-ness".
Which does not require cliques or sycophants, can stand on it's own. Neither does it require, nor employ any degree of truth bending smoke, corrupted air, noise mass. It is what it is, and there it stands, hardy, seasoned, challenged...expressing only its essential nature. Its illimitable truth. And lonesome it may be, it doesn't seem to reflect any "loneliness."...
And as seen in stanza two, this truth interweaves with wider Nature. The co-operative machinations of this 'Nature-with-a-capital-N' are to be found at the very origins of the Lonesome Pine, and however harmoniously or discordantly these elements tend to inter-relate, they have produced this figure right there: halfway up Newlands Pass. Immediately in the poem, this tree and what it may stand for becomes accessible. It's location is named. Or at least, the idea that it is accessible becomes apparent in the very beginning, which can signify to the reader that the characteristics of the tree - such as essential selfhood, inner truth - are also immediate and accessible.
The name "Newlands Pass" can also serve to highlight what may be an internal mapping point which bridges the individual to their yet undiscovered core: an age old fact of inner spirit that waits there, sturdy as any weathered tree, still to be found anew.
Shades of poet Gary Snyder in this one.

Pine Tree Tops

" In the blue night
frost haze, the sky glows
with the moon
pine tree tops
bend snow-blue, fade
into sky, frost, starlight.
The creak of boots.
Rabbit tracks, deer tracks,
what do we know."

[Wild Rose]

Thank you: Newlands Pass goes along Newlands valley. then over the mountain by a gap high up A Col in mountaineering jargon; Hause in Cumbrian & possibly Scandinavian)

Actually I had the picture posted ready; did the writing yesterday with many interruptions

It stands alone on a desolate road

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Reminded me of the Laurel (no pun intended) and Hardy song 'The trail of the lonesome Pine '

In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia
On the trail of the lonesome Pine
In the pale moonshine our hearts entwine
Where you carved your name and I carved mine.
Oh, you - like the mountains are blue
Like the pine - I am lonesome for you
In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia
On the trail of the lonesome Pine.
On a mountain in Virginia stands a lonesome Pine
Just below is the little cabin home of a little girl of mine
Her name is June and very, very soon she''ll belong to me
For I know she''s waiting there for me ''neath that lone Pine tree.

Songwriters: Ballard Mac Donald / Harry Carroll
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine lyrics © Shapiro Bernstein & Co. Inc.

[Wild Rose]

Yes That is what gave me the title

Stan & Olly were great
Stan was from Ulverston Cumbria

[John Alexander McFadyen]

A local then!

[Relic]

Nature acts on its own, and by itself, is always successful. Man is what can destroy its beauty.
This sounds like a nice place.

[Wild Rose]

The Lake District National Park > Now a World Heritage Site
The beauty is preserved > BUTread moreThe Lake District National Park > Now a World Heritage Site
The beauty is preserved > BUT
Not a place for those who are uneasy in wild places

[Onlyme]

This was a great testament to nature and durability and lasting via tough times. Great poem Wild Rose. Loved reading it.

[Wild Rose]

Thank you
Yes really I don't think the picture portrays the wildness of the place
It has to be visited to really appreciate that

[Onlyme]

I can understand that. Particularly when you walk in your exact footprints. :) But you gave a testimony to its profound beauty.

[Wild Rose]

a bit like Iceland up there > Except we have walls. fences. Trees BUT the road is narrow and twisty

[Dave Brown]

It is interesting to see a tree, alone flourish.
We plant many trees, water, and fertilize, and still, have those that fail

[Wild Rose]

We live in an area with lots of planted woodlands > now gradually being replanted with native trees
Around the edges of the planted areas you can find many self seeded treelings growing
This is like an escapee well outside the forested area > Also it is not a native tree

[Einstein Noodle]

pines are called lonesome for a reason eh!? whether standing alone or in a forest of them...the wind running through the boughs inspires a wistful wanting for something more .. i truly love pine forests .. yours is alone ... complete ... is doing its pine tree thing quite naturally .. in reading i feel the lack of human beings ...even your narrator voice has a disconnected sense to it ... and so presents this unpolluted telling of "The Lonesome Pine" ..even the language used is without flower and color ... its a simply stated power .. that is Nature ... i think your poem is more complicated than what it is on the surface ... you got me pondering now ;)
E.

[Wild Rose]

Thank you > Oh you have almost dissected my writing

I/WE were told to write our lab reports in Third person removed > That is as if you are watching someone else carry out the work > The tree is High on the hillside with no habitation in view from it or of it - Someone said rabbit run I don't think any rabbits exist near it but it isn't high enough for mountain hares > No one will sopt as they pass their is no reason to > No view except the passing road turning the corner and steepening to cross the hause (col) into Buttermere valley

[Einstein Noodle]

love and peace to you Wild Rose ..its a blessing to connect in such a way in poetry isn't it?!