Baobab World

The world is a baobab

teeming with life and water

without water it shrivels

and dies

[Ibu Batuta an Arab explorer in East Africa saw a baobab and recorded it in his 14th century travelogue

botanist Alpino in 1592 ate the fruit while in Egypt and called it Bahobab from the Arabic buhibab which means many-seeded fruit

French explorer Michal Adanson observed a baobab in 1749 on the island of Sor in Senegal recognized the fruit described by Alpino and called it baobab]

Now the singing tree of superstition is alive

and filled with water

holding perhaps 12,000 gallons

replenishes itself in the rainy season

kuokoa

who stops the rain?

bwana anaokoa

Oh singing tree of superstition

bark taking water in

smooth bark

leaves like a vegetable

everything here for survival

pulp of the seed like candy

ciru

beautiful inside and out

qualities that go forward into the ages

living thousands of years

Oh singing tree

withering prophet

speak for the world

tuokoe

save us

Oh singing tree that gives blessings

and curses

in you there is life

__________________

NaPoWriMo Day 8 “Twenty Little Poetry Projects”

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Maid of Earth Day

Out of the mist

in silver glow

comes a voice

I did not know

This earth is mine

tend it well

all firs and the pine

cedars too

A breath for me

and a breath for you

_____________

NaPoWriMo Day 25 prompt to write an aisling

Procrastination

• 

Rain is falling

branches ready to snap

leaves blow everywhere

he waits to go rake

leaves pile higher

at least clear a path so I won’t fall down

little at a time will get the job done

🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁

Rain is falling

look the sun just came out

grab your rake and go

it might not last long

glistening on tree

how can you take a nap at times like this

it could be the last time we see this sun

________________

dVerse prompt on a pet peeve— like when my husband doesn’t help raking leaves 🍁 and I sit writing this

Fix It

WE are going out to fix the garden

dormant ground for years

overgrown weed trees &

shrubs now tree tall

it is a miracle anything survived

in thick Texas soil

parched & cracked in summer’s

ninety degrees & climbing

our sweat pours out

_______________

dVerse prompt to write a quadrille with the word fix.

Travelling to North Rim

Travelling with the storm perched over the canyon we head to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon both going there the storm moving faster along the rim while we drive over the plateau happy to be dry in these moments arriving at the campground everything is wet but the storm has passed the sky clears revealing the colors of layers of chiseled rock lit by the setting sun

Two years later I travel that same road there is no storm but snow is on the ground where the Cat Fire burned last summer we watched it burning from deep in the canyon hotshot fire fighters called in helicopters fly in and out delivering their load plumes of smoke rise over the Kaibab Forest we float safe on the water of the Colorado River and smell the air from 8,200 feet above now the snow covered ground hides the char of the Cat Fire black surrounds the base of these ponderosa pines others are burned completely pinyon junipers pine needles scrub brush 4500 acres burnt from a lightning strike

Elegy for Trees

you’ve stood for so long

swayed by wind

a dance in forest

habitat

home

life maker

today you are a resource

put on trucks

and roll away
__________

NaPoWriMo prompt

Spring Clear Cut

 

bees gather pollen

make honey to eat so sweet

to me it’s a sneeze

how my weeping eyes

itch and burn for fallen trees

remember the bee

hives on the branches

they really will replant this

by giving them time

we can defeat this
_____________

dVerse prompt on “gathering” in quadrille form as the pollen is falling in my neighborhood and the logging trucks are coming to clear cut the neighbor’s property

Regret

I went out to tend the grass

try to make it greener

midlawn is a forty foot volunteer

a silver poplar

and I regret I did not plant fruit trees

but rather let this one live

to bring shade

Me and a Tree

what’s a tree to me

something to climb

or hang from

to see a bird in

hide from another

or take a branch

and run some

 

what’s a tree to me

watch the sun shine

through in the morning

that bee hives hang from

a high wind could bend it

or crack the wood

when a storm come

 

that’s what a tree is to me

 

___________________________

a prompt from toads – back to childhood

 

 

Tree Spa

the Japanese call it tree bathing

soaking oneself in the green of trees

the branches a  melody in wind

their stoic presence

 

find yourself a tree bath

walk there daily

see if you are cleansed