Poetry – Poet Tree – My Cherry Tree.

Posted on by Opher

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My Cherry Tree

Our garden was shaded by a huge cherry tree. It was there when we bought the house and has lived for decades. When we were buying the house there was a hammock between that cherry tree and an old apple tree. It looked idyllic. I could just imagine lying in it on warm summer days, reading and sipping a beer. I never did. The garden was mainly a place I had to mow trim and work in. I never found the time to laze. The kids loved that hammock though; they used it as a swing.

But I loved that tree. Every spring it would burst into life with fresh green leaves that were like a joyous rebirth. In early summer it was festooned with blossom so that it was a huge great pink candy-floss. In autumn it was covered in cherries. The birds feasted on them and we only managed to get a few. The grass underneath was covered in pips. In winter its skeleton made intricate patterns against the sky.

The birds roosted high in its branches and felt safe.

Then it became diseased and I had to have it sawn down. There is a big hole in the garden where it used to be. There is a stump in the ground.

I have the body of that tree. It was sawn into big chunks that I chopped and sawed into blocks. There is a big woodpile all along the wall.

This winter I am burning those logs. Every time I put one on the fire I think of my tree. It is still giving. The light and heat that it stored through those decades are being given back out. The wood that it made from water, carbon dioxide and sunlight, is now warming my house and giving me pleasure.

There is always going to be a hole where it stood. It’s a hole filled with memories.

 

The Cherry Tree

 

The sun used to shine on my green cherry tree

As year upon year it stored energy

Like a battery –

Water to sugar

Carbon to cherry.

Sunlight captured

For bird, bee and me.

 

It was busy building perches

And changing sugar to wood,

Sugar to nectar

And sugar to fruit

Doing all it could.

 

After many a decade

It succumbed to disease

And was sawn to the ground

And brought to its knees.

 

Now its remains are stacked by the wall

Chopped into logs and blocks

That will all end on my burner

As I work through the stocks.

All that stored up energy

Collected through decades

Released into light

Heat and temperature grades.

 

I’ve lost my cherry tree

Its blossom, fruit, leaf and beauty.

But that glorious

Individual

Is still giving something useful back to me.

I’m grateful

For its great bounty.

I shall miss it in all those seasons

There’s a hole where it used to be

Filled with love

In my memory.

 

Opher 19.10.2015

23 thoughts on “Poetry – Poet Tree – My Cherry Tree.”

  2. Aw, Opher. So sad when an old friend dies. The relationship lives on in your heart…and in this case warmth for the winter as well. Sorry for your loss.
    Mary

      1. They are living, loving beings. A beautiful tribute you wrote.

  4. I SO get this, too! Last summer we had to cut down two huge pines we planted when we moved into this house 43 years ago. Their root systems had gotten too shallow and we get a lot of wind from the mouth of a canyon here. The neighbors did it for us. And I had Steve save one 3″ slice from each tree. I fancied making bookends out of them. They’re still outside in the shed. But one was right outside our bedroom window and had a nest of Mourning Doves in it. Their cooing would wake us up every morning in the spring and summer. Lordy! How I miss those trees.

    1. Trees are a special form of life. I feel real despair when I see what they are doing to all those majestic giants around the planet. It is real distress.
      My own tree was like losing a friend so I don’t know what it did to all the animals that depended on it.
      Chopping trees should never be undertaken lightly.

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