Birch Trees (with recording)

art, Family, Love, poetry, relationships, writing, , , , , 33 Comments

Strains of Tijuana Brass flood the yard
while father on bended knee tends
his garden, tiers of stone edged rows
encircling a trio of birch trees.

Father points out birches on Sunday
drives, as if the bark is sacred, leaves
whispering a secret I cannot hear –
stirs in me an indefinable longing.

My husband planted birch trees
there amongst the flower beds –
how the leaves shimmer in sunlight,
how my heart quickens, bittersweet.

Imagine Father seated there, mellow
as he was in old age, angst expended,
tyranny of parenting set aside – understand
love unexpressed dwells in birch trees.

(Watercolour image by yours truly)

Posted by

Permission to write, paint, and imagine are the gifts I gave myself when chronic illness hit - a fair exchange: being for doing. Relevance is an attitude. Humour essential.

33 thoughts on “Birch Trees (with recording)”

  5. I really like the painting – the colors and shading. Really nice. The poem – read aloud! – also so enjoyable. “Angst expended…” – ah yes.
    I have a soft spot for birch trees as well. I miss the ones we left behind when we moved.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. Delightful reflection … and image! … especially drawn to “angst expended” … something not even age can bring reliably. Guess birch trees are an essential ingredient. I’ll pay closer attention next time I’m near them (listening for de-angsting vibes). I googled birch trees in Texas … a “river birch” grows in East TX … maybe they were at the campground near the Arkansas border … maybe what felt so good there.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks Jazz. My son tells me the bark of the birch trees is sacred as it makes great fire starter. I think at one time it was used for scrolls. Can’t remember if I saw any in Texas or not. Hmmm.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.