Mark Scrivener Poetry Blog No. 16 A Leaf for Timothy

A LEAF FOR TIMOTHY

Written some time ago when my son was a toddler, this poem wraps some themes around an everyday experience. In that sense it is more than a simple tree poem, though I was privileged to have it included in an ABC radio project about trees and in the book "In their Branches". Besides some full rhymes the poem uses a lot of assonance (similar vowels in words, sometimes called "half rhyme"). This is easier to hear in audio. Audio versions can be found here :

www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/weekendarts/trees-ive-loved/5083294 and

http://www.macjams.com/song/64127

                 A LEAF FOR TIMOTHY

 

I carry home

a leaf for Timothy

from beneath

a tall fig tree,

from below

its canopy,

green spread on blue,

from beneath

its buttress roots

that stretch like giant limbs

into earth.

Smooth, dark-green and veined it is.

I hold it to the winter sun

and see the ever-finer branchings,

intricate beyond my sight.

All life depends upon the light,

warm light that powers the life of leaves,

on weaving nourishment from rain and soil,

and breathing substance of the air.

And thus despite

the wire and the rays,

the concrete and the steel,

our mineral pride,

I know from ancient days,

from some faint utterance that comes

from atavistic and deep time,

from forest aeons of the dream,

that we were born to leaves.

And thus, for little learning eyes,

I hold it up and speak.

And thus, for little learning ears,

I show a word for leaf.