Re: [ZESTPoets] On Killing a tree, understanding poetry

Mon, 22 Aug 2005 06:31:34 -0700

Thanks for reminding me of this poem. I must ask Gieve to read it next time we meet.
 
I have been trying to save two trees on our road, and as Gieve said, they have been muderously hacked and yet, stubbornly, grew. The perpetrators have been served with a police notice (it's illegal to cut trees without permission, you can be jailed for up to a year). To enforce the deed I ostentatiously take photos of the trees and save them to my computer; I have a dated record of their progress, which has been forwarded to the Tree Authority om a CD.
One I had given up on. Today I saw, to my delight, that a sturdy shoot had appeared. The other has a nice bushy crown and some small shoots at the base. I am thinking of writing a poem about them. But it will be more joyful; these trees have come back from the dead.
 
jane
 
On Killing a Tree

- Gieve Patel

It takes much time to kill a tree,
Not a simple jab of the knife
Will do it. It has grown
Slowly consuming the earth,
Rising out of it, feeding
Upon its crust, absorbing
Years of sunlight, air, water,
And out of its leprous hide
Sprouting leaves.

So hack and chop

But this alone won't do it.
Not so much pain will do it.
The bleeding bark will heal
And from close to the ground
Will rise curled green twigs,
Miniature boughs
Which if unchecked will expand again
To former size.

No,
The root is to be pulled out-
Out of the anchoring earth;
It is to be roped, tied,
And pulled out-snapped out
Or pulled out entirely,
Out from the earth-cave,
And the strength of the tree exposed,
The source, white and wet,
The most sensitive, hidden
For years inside the earth.

Then the matter
Of scorching and choking
In sun and air,
Browning, hardening,
Twisting, withering,

And then it is done.

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