The Tree in the Park

I took this photo of the Dogwood in our backyard which reminded me of a poem I wrote when I was 15. It’s as it appeared in my school magazine . . . just a few years ago.

Oh, big tree, so cold and bare,

Why do you sway in the cold winter air?

Why do you stand so tall and so strong,

Adding sounds to the winter throng?

Your branches are long, your trunk is wide

It measures ten feet to the other side.

You sway all day, and all the night,

No other tree reaches your magnificent height.

But soon the spring will come again,

Your boughs will be covered, all blossoming,

The birds and the bees will shelter thereon,

While whistling and humming their merry song.

When September winds make the blossom fall,

The leaves appear on the tree so tall,

The branches are covered from trunk to limb

And the green leaves flutter enjoying the wind.

The summer sun makes green leaves brown,

And many fall upon the ground,

Butterflies, moths and thistle-tops fly,

Above the tree, high into the sky.

But soon the sun must slowly fade,

The tree will cease to provide much shade,

For, you see, the ground is covered,

With large flat leaves of many colours.

So once again the tree is bare

As its branches sway in the cold winter air,

It stands so straight, so tall, so strong,

Its branches creaking, through winter long.

Corinne Fenton