Union Triptych I: In Praise of the Trees - A Love Song

 

The Union Triptych

Dedicated to their husband

 

Union Triptych I: In Praise of the Trees – A Love Song

 

Our ancestors planted trees.

They built Ships of the Line.

Fine, plain, homes.

Wrapping them into the warp and the woof

Of the patterns of our lives.

 

In the ebb and the flow

of the seasons

of the patterns

they wrap their lives into ours

for we

“Blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree”[i].

 

Our ancestors wrote verse for every season

Alexander Pope[ii]

James Thomson[iii]

Stand tallboy sentinel for them all.

 

“One man in his time plays many parts

His acts being seven ages”[iv].

Every tree in the park echoes,

In the circles in their hearts,

the cycle of Shakespeare’s teaching.

 

Are “the leaves of the trees … for the healing of the nations”[v]?

With the great gift of the passing of time

We translate the oxygen of friendship

in the mystery of photosynthesis.

 

We too plant trees.

Fagus Sylvatica[vi].

In solidarity with our ancestors.

Walking tall,

we plant trees together,

in the avenues of our hearts.

We are

“Like trees

Planted by streams of water

Which yield their fruit in its Season”[vii]

 

Silence

 

 

Copyright

© Lottie E. Allen

Thursday 22 July

In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-One

 

Footnotes

 

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[i] “Immortal, invisible, God only wise” verse 3 line 3. Walter Chalmers Smith (1824-1908). Tune Saint Denio.

[ii] “The Seasons”, 1709, by Alexander Pope.

[iii] “The Seasons”, 1730, by James Thomson.

[iv] As You Like It (Act 2 Scene 7) by William Shakespeare

[v] Revelation Chapter 22 Verse 22 (NRSV)

[vi] A native ever Green Beech Tree.

[vii] Psalm 1 Verse 3 (NRSV)