Roots

Roots

A Poem by Chris Shaw
"

(honey fungus is a b*****d killer)

"
in the aftermath of a restless night
i a late riser was disturbed
not by a shaft of sunlight
streaming through a rain splattered
window pane in my sloping roof
nor by the sub song of a blackbird
singing to himself nearby

i sleepy eyed was wakened suddenly
by sounds of a tree surgeon's loud
chainsaw with its sharp cutting teeth
working through limbs of a walnut tree
from a platform of hydraulic horror

i watched its agony as its wood
was systematically carved apart
while the heart of me was felled
a final farewell where once stood
fruit bearing twin majestic friends

my eyes watered as i witnessed
an end of what used to be
a sad demise of a tree on
the outer boundaries of my garden

pardon me for my sentimentality
left grieving for elders
whose backbone and leafy green
for forty years has watched
faithfully and overseen
yes overseen my roots and
the growth of me

 

© 2020 Chris Shaw


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Featured Review

I hear ya! My mom married a guy & moved into his house, then promptly cut down all the big beautiful trees in a climate where shade makes all the difference in summer! I was aghast! I never criticized her, because that is not my way, but I felt it was an abomination for her to do that to a piece of property this guy had owned for 50 years! Oh well! He adored her & had no ill feelings! The best poems, like yours, conjure such vivid scenes in the readers minds & hearts (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

Posted 4 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Chris Shaw

4 Years Ago

Thanks Margie for sharing. To cut living trees down is a no no in my opinion, unless they are danger.. read more



Reviews

A similar feeling hit me when a beautiful weeping willow was stripped of its branches ready for felling, so many people complained that in the end it was just left and bless it, over a couple of years it did try to repair itself ;then one day i noticed it was gone ... so sad as the street opposite had been named after it many years before.

Posted 4 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Chris Shaw

4 Years Ago

Hello Stella, we all have our tree stories to tell. Willows are so beautiful, sad about your willow... read more
AAAARRGH!... Is, i admit, a rather peculiar way to start a review, but this reminded me so much of the scaries thing my eight year old mind ever saw.
It was a pre-watershed sunday evening in deepest 1970's Scotland, when a tales of the unexpected episode came on tv and warped my fragile little mind.
It was about a tree surgeon who could here trees and plants scream when they were cut and it drove him insane.
The him in question, was the actor who would later infuriate us further along the line, with his portrayal of the smelly old Claude Greengrass in heartbeat (who ironically signalled the official end of the weekend, with its soundtrack signalling bath and school in the morning (( shouldve been that smelly git taking a bath))
Now, where was I? Oh yeah, have you ever noticed how the absence of a tree becomes an eyesore and messes with our head whenever we pass where it was?
I was seriously offended when i found out the owners of my childhood home cut down my childhood climbing tree, which i am told i fell from on many an ocassion, but i don't remember that, and at least there was no harm done... Brrr whirp tweee!
I should shut up now, my head be hurty. 😀


Posted 4 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Chris Shaw

4 Years Ago

Pink tongue gave you alot of pain.? You should have understood Goldilocks and the three bears much b.. read more
Lorry

4 Years Ago

I know I'll probably get my Scottishness revoked for saying this, but porridge is disgusting and sho.. read more
Chris Shaw

4 Years Ago

You'll end up as haggis!! And you'll be stripped of yer kilt lol.
The tree cutting scenario is changing.
I think in Vancouver, when one goes down, two must go back up.
I am assuming that tree was rotting and dangerous and if not, it is an environmental travesty.
I've had an old mature Alder at the end of my driveway growing for well over 50 years until it rotted from the inside out and we had to remove about half
It was a sad day
I'll bet they come back with a planting and if not you could lead a large group of sign waving protestors down to city hall and have the press expose the whole damnable affair
Chin up Gramma (?)

Posted 4 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Chris Shaw

4 Years Ago

The walnut trees were killed by the spread of honey fungus. It's deadly. These two were in a close a.. read more
Dave Brown

4 Years Ago

Oh, right!
Even tho I did read walnut, It failed to register and you did tell me before about.. read more
Chris Shaw

4 Years Ago

Beautiful trees walnuts. Great loss not having a supply in the autumn. Honey fungus is deadly.:((
I always wonder, what a tree feels when it’s cut down so mercilessly like that. Giving shade, sustenance to a myriad of life forms, enriching the air with their green breath and this is the sad return. Perhaps there was no way of salvaging it. Yet, in a way, that old tree had such a meaningful existence on earth. Superbly written and expressed, Chris!

Posted 4 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Chris Shaw

4 Years Ago

The tree was already dead DIVYA. Killed by honey fungus so I like to think it felt nothing:)) In the.. read more
I hear ya! My mom married a guy & moved into his house, then promptly cut down all the big beautiful trees in a climate where shade makes all the difference in summer! I was aghast! I never criticized her, because that is not my way, but I felt it was an abomination for her to do that to a piece of property this guy had owned for 50 years! Oh well! He adored her & had no ill feelings! The best poems, like yours, conjure such vivid scenes in the readers minds & hearts (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

Posted 4 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Chris Shaw

4 Years Ago

Thanks Margie for sharing. To cut living trees down is a no no in my opinion, unless they are danger.. read more
i always think of this when i see very old trees...how much they have seen and heard...
the generations who come and go...but that tree which has seen everything, still sways in its own wind...
putting on the years through the tunnel of time.
j.

Posted 4 Years Ago


1 of 1 people found this review constructive.

Chris Shaw

4 Years Ago

I like where you went with this Jacob. You share my views. I think of trees in the vicinity like sen.. read more

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Added on January 18, 2020
Last Updated on January 18, 2020

Author

Chris Shaw
Chris Shaw

Berkshire, United Kingdom



About
Albert, my paternal grandfather introduced me to Tennyson when I was nine. I have loved poetry ever since but did not attempt writing a single piece until I was 40. It's never too late to try somethin.. more..

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