And the Dead Tree Gives no Shelter

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decay

Photo:  WHB … 2019

 

The tree had fallen
Rotting remains now
As the rain 
The wind 
devour its bark
Dam its life stream
Yet still it nurtures life 
Home for beetle colonies to breed
For fungi to succeed

Rotted matted carcass
This sorbate matter
Feeds a frenzy
Of insect life
Foreign matter
Now acceptable
Powdered matter
Now both home
And sustenance
Renewable energy
Nature’s liturgy

Life in Death
To turn a phrase
That has to be
Nature’s best call
Perpetuating the present
In the past
Creating a new future
In an old landscape

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N.B.  The title of this poem is taken from T.S.Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’.
‘1. The Burial of the Dead’, beginning … ‘April is the cruellest month …’

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6 thoughts on “And the Dead Tree Gives no Shelter”

  2. Evocative photo and poem, Roland. I also tend to stop and study the mighty trees
    that have fallen in the woods or forests. And see like you, the new life in the old life.
    It is a work of art on a big scale.
    ” Creating a new future
    In an old landscape ” as you write.

    Miriam

    Like

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