Old Tree

8th Grade English Project Written in 2007

Oh Tree, old Tree, embrace me with your soft leaves.

Shade me from the intense summer heat with shade,

Cover me with your green boughs when it rains in the eves.

When I am in the midst of your branches, no longer afraid,

I hear you whisper to me when there is trouble to evade:

“I am the Tree, and I am strong and old,

I know every secret there is to be told.

Although you can see me on only this hill,

I may go anywhere that I should will.”

 

You said listen closely for you were not to repeat,

So I sat there and listened to your long story that day.

I memorized everything from your woes to your feats,

Because you were my bright friend in all the grey.

You continue to breathlessly and slowly say:

“The men are destroying my brethren, you know,

And soon it will be time for me to follow.

Here is the secret of crushing the ignorance of your peers,

For they will become stronger in the future years.”

 

“You must get to work the second I am done,

The world is counting on you to restrain,

I am counting on you, you are the one.

Never become dull or immensely vain,

And you had better not give in to the pain.

You will have to resist every day that you live,

But I know you can do it because you can forgive.

I know you can do it because I am the Tree,

And I know every rhyme, reason and plea.”

 

Then he sighed with the wind whistling in a branch,

And I waited patiently for the Tree to reveal.

What he said next made me terribly blanch,

And it was hard for me to believe it was real.

“If you do not help us then I am sad to tell you,

That there will be no more trees in a year or two.

The world will be darker than ever before,

If the men and women continue to blatantly ignore.”

 

“The facts are these, my small, innocent child,

The future is bleak, cold, sad, wasteful, and grim.

These people are destroying the natural and wild,

Carelessly consuming, then filling the dumps to the brim!

Just throwing things away with not even a whim.

It is destroying our world quicker than you think,

It is ready to fall quickly, in a single eye blink.

That’s why, my child, you must do what I ask,

And believe me I know it is no small task.”

 

“So please make up a solution, the solution, for us,

For the world, for the animals, and people, and plants!

And tell the humans to stop making the rest of us fuss.

Tell the scientists to give your solution a chance,

And for money try getting a few big grants!

Spread the word of the news I have told you, now!

Share your solution and for help show them how.

I am sure you can do it, just don’t give up and try.

Now sadly, it is time to say forever goodbye.”

 

That’s when I heard the hacks down below,

And jumped down from my perch with sadness.

I could not believe it was time already to go.

I tried to tell the men of their madness,

But they kept smacking the axes in all the badness.

After some hours of crying and thinking,

My feelings were of terrible woe and still sinking.

Then I thought of the passed Tree’s colossal request,

And I began my fantastic, long protest.

 

Now here I am, working hard as I can,

And I know I will discover something big.

I already have my great solution’s plan.

It involves some algebra, geometry, and trig.

But I know it will work, my amazing new rig.

As for the people accepting their destructive wrongs,

Let’s just say I have heard a-many so longs.

I know in the end I will do my Tree right,

And make Earth, again, clean, resourceful, and bright.

 

If you have ever had a loving Tree like mine,

Then you must help me now on my quest.

I know we can do it, if we all combine.

We are Tree lovers united and we attest,

To the harmful ways of the human pest.

Stand up to the wrongs and cheer on the rights,

Do it for all those Tree-enclosed nights.

Help me think of more ways, solutions, and plots,

And together we will untangle the world’s biggest knots.

 

 

 

-M. Slaughter

Reviews

[J. James Reider]

hun, if this is plagiarized, I certainly do not recognize it and I have read alot of poetry... it is a wonderful, wonderful, and dare I say WONDERFUL poem... your words are not only precise, they are perfect... there is nothing that I would recommend changing with this poem... what I do recommend is that you keep writing if you enjoy it.... you seem to have a genuine talent for it and if I were you I would not let anyone hold me back (which could be exactly what whoever accused you of plagiarism was trying to do)... big picture, my own father accused me of cheating in school, to which I figured I would stick it to him by dropping out of high school... the only thing that that did was bring me down to his level... it also turned me away from writing for six years, so what I am saying is someone was jealous of my accomplishments and tried to hold me back and I fell for it... bottom line, don't fall for it... even if it makes you stop writing, then they have won... I think you are smarter than I was, but I figured I would give you an example of what can happen... awesome write!

[Gravedigger]

Wonderful! The patterning was beautiful, and I loved the tree's monologue. Its very true that more and more of thwild is being destroyed, and it breaks my heart everytime I see things being cut down, especially for cosmetic purposes. There are lots of trees where I live, and I don't know what I would do if they were removed...Every line here seems perfectly placed; please don't change a thing! As for the plagiarism bit, I believe whoever said that said it out of jealousy and disbelief that someone could write better than them. Pay them no heed. Keep on writing!

[Blake Q Hatfield]

A very inspirational poem about saving the enviroment. It brings to mind the statement "I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree." A nice piece overall.

[a Messenger]

This is a truly marvelous write. The rhyme, the rhythm, the flow, all nearly perfect.
Your tree character is simply great. I agree with the reviewer before me: don't let
anyone discourage you from writing. You have a gift for it.

[The M Graphics]

Nice work. Very creative!

[E York]

Wow...this was really good. Almost made me cry...I didn't know that you could write poetry like this!!! Wow, I'm so proud of you, sweetie! I'm so glad that you got an account here. Now, I really want to read that book that you were talking about starting. This was really powerful. You should try and get it published somewhere. That would be awesome!