Sunday 7 July 2013

The Death of Trees by Josephine Shaw

When we woke the wind had dropped,
but power out, clock stopped, six huge elms
lay splayed all around the village pond -
two hundred years of swagger drained away.

And we pronounced them dead,
impressed the death of trees seemed
so much bigger than ours could be.
The earth keeps moving.

So memories of heavy horses, brasses shining,
a momentary vogue for Dutch barn building
(sandstone brick, pale Georgian paint),
or Shelley’s local popularity,

the coming and going of damp smoke,
the hug of village life, or young men
mustering for drill beneath the shade
(imagining Kipling, finding Arras),

were all left hanging in a point in space,
soft voices dead, in the unaccustomed sound of quiet.


Josephine Shaw, London, UK

4 comments:

Crafty Green Poet said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Crafty Green Poet said...

Josephine Shaw was born in Wiltshire, has three daughters and lives in London. She has been writing all her life, mostly for herself, but after being invited onto the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Summer School at Queens University Belfast last year, she is starting to share her work. Much of her poetry is about love, place and the meaning of memories.

S Kay Murphy said...

This poem has gorgeous imagery!

Jo said...

Thanks! :-)