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Saturday morning readers share:
Nancy Barnett
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Death Tree
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The aging oak tree on our block, which we had watched together,
Noting the frailty of its branches even in Spring,
Now, stripped and gaunt after an autumnal hurricane
Stands in death tall, powerful, alone.
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I walk beneath, longing to tell you,
“Our tree is gone” – but you are not here.
You went out in another tempest, bruised and broken
Before one leaf had turned to gold.
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Like the tree you stand before me,
Shattered of branches, defaced of bole and leaf,
Torn away without gentleness,
Naked, wrapped in the invisible sheet of pain,
Noble in the completeness of death.
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I walk in sharp winds that cut life between us;
In clearness of winter light,
Along icy edges of despair,
I keep watch by your dark death tree;
Knowing in storms that will come
No lightning bold, in terror or anguish,
Can shatter the roots that bind me to you,
Plunged deep in primal earth clay,
In the passion and endurance of love.
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Katherine Garrison Chapin (1890-1977)
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This poem by Katherine Garrison Chapin is one I’ve had for 40 or 50 years. I believe I cut it out from the New Yorker. It’s a little on the somber side; not for the holidays!
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It caught my eye because of my memory of the elm tree we had in our back yard in our home in Springfield, Missouri. I lost one of my brothers when I was 11 in 1962 to a car accident. When I was 15 years old I came home from school one day and the tree was gone! It was during the elm tree blight and the city was removing the elm trees. This was about 1966.
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The tree was special because we had bought an old house and my mother, noticing my reaction at 7 years old, told me we’d put up a tree swing. (It hadn’t been lived in for awhile and looked haunted…. We’d owned a nice brick home in Independence.) My brothers put up the swing and I had much enjoyment swinging in the tree for a few years. When we came home from my brother’s funeral I headed straight for the tree swing.
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The last two lines I find especially poignant. There was no bereavement counseling in those days and over the years and to this day I’ve found comfort in poetry.
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– Nancy
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Additional poetry shared by Nancy Barnett at Verse and Image:
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– Bill
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V E R S E and I M A G E 
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