by
George Ella Lyon
(according to the Celtic Tree Calendar
my birthday makes me a Willow)
How about a willow
that doesn’t weep
that spikes her green tresses
and carries on sturdy
like some punk oak
or gets that groovy bark
like a hackberry
O willow
what if I don’t want to be
weeping
or witched
what if I want to be
royal like the oak
strong enough to be a ship
or abloom with love
like the apple
or sacred like the pine?
Am I stuck here
by the water
enchanted against my own
willowy
will?
©2010 George Ella Lyon. All rights reserved.
I love the layers and textures of Trying to Get Out of My Tree, the perfect mixing human nature and mother nature. Besides appreciating the poem on its own, it also inspired me to try and write a "tree poem" and to experiment with other perspectives, too. In other words... it showed me a new way to view a part of the world, something I find much of my favorite poetry does. So, happy birthday to George Ella Lyon... a poet I'm thrilled to have here as part of 30 Poets/30 Days.
Yesterday, brought us Ars Poetica by Georgia Heard. Tomorrow... One of the Many Stories by Jacqueline Woodson! For more on 30 Poets/30 Days and ways to follow along, please click here.
4 comments:
Wonderful poem and writer! And, I'm an Ash...
Agreed, wonderful poem -- and that title!
I gotta say that I LOVED this poem. Make that LOVE. Wow.
It speaks to how I felt as a teen, for sure.
And yet, it's about trees!
(I'm gonna have to stop laughing at that Barbara Walters question now, I guess...)
George Ella Lyon is awesome.
Thanks so much to you both,
Namaste,
Lee
Whoa, that tree calendar stuff is complex. I have to say that I'd much prefer to be some punked out tree (Hawthorne? Acacia?) than something weepy - but this poem makes the reader chuckle and think - we none of us must stay and be what someone else thinks we are...
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