Weeping Beech

I was in the dark although among the light,

I had ducked under the beech the sun was all around,

I swiftly went into the lost world of this weeping giant,

Smooth bark awaited me; I saw the twisted winding trunk,

Hidden by the deep glossy foliage on the surface,

However now that I was inside I knew what anchored this foliage forest,

The main trunk gave release to many appendages,

These were shooting up and down twisting each way they went,

They seemed to have no particular scheme, but wait;

It was all a colossal scheme,

This tree when a sapling determined it would engage itself on this spot,

It would continue to grow reaching up and down,

Spreading all the ways of the compass,

After all the decades of determined unceasing expansion,

I now found myself in a wooden fortress, a town of sorts,

I could only marvel at how efficiently the sun had been kept out,

It was then as I stood in this cool dark “beech town” that it came to me;

Were it not for the sun that was now left on the outside,

There would never have been this twisted marvel of smooth

Silver that welcomed me out of the heat of the day.

It was then that I glanced yes when I saw… the carvings,

Initials of lovers, of children, right there on the smooth silver bark,

They reached back through the many decades of this “beech town”.

No I could not be moved to put my mark on this weeping giant,

You see today this great tree left its mark on me.

         Joseph James

             7/20/08 © From White Night available @ Barnes and Noble .com Amazon.com through this site.