Poetry Forum

"The White Oak"

https://autumnskypoetrydaily.com/2023/0 ... -j-elster/

The editor's summary encapsulates my thought. Excellent and relevant.

Thank you for sharing Martin.

That's an beautiful poem, and one which evokes a feeling of anger. Any poem that evokes feeling is successful, as that's the hardest thing to do.

I too get angry when trees are cut down for no reason. My current landlord, a Trump Republican, seems to have something against trees. He purchased the house not long before I moved into it. He not only cut down all three trees on the property, but he convinced a neighbor to cut down a huge, magnificent tree that looked to be fifty years old or more.

I concur with the chorus, this is fine work. It sings, which is always nice, and yes, it does evoke anger. You are quite right about the contrast between the time of growing and the time of destroying.

Cheers,
John

Many thanks, Phil, Caleb, and John!

Phil - Yes, the editor's comment is really good.

Caleb - I feel for those trees that your current landlord destroyed. I once lived in a place where, in the next yard over, a beautiful silver maple tree lost a large branch from the remnant tropical storm of a hurricane. So they later cut down the whole tree but, remarkably, seedlings were growing up from the stump! And the seedlings were growing into saplings with leaves and maple seeds. But every year, the maintenance man would cut all the seedlings away. I once asked him why he isn’t letting the tree grow back. He said he didn’t want to have lots of leaves in the yard to have to rake up!

John - Thanks for saying the poem sings. That’s really nice to hear.

Martin, I wrote my own poem about a lovely tree destroyed by bureaucrats. It's here on the Experienced forum ("The Wire and the Tree"). Because a wire was running through the leaves, they cut away most of the tree's canopy.

The three trees my landlord cut down were saplings that grew up at the edge of the property; they weren't planted, and they were leaning. But the tree on the neighbor's property was a huge, glorious tree. A tree-cutting company sent in a "tree doctor" who claimed the tree had wood rot, but it didn't. Why on earth anyone would trust a tree-cutting company to make such a determination, I don't know. "Yup, the tree has wood rot; we'll cut it down for $1,000."