Craig Norris

Mar 09, 2009 ⭐ View statistics (Premium feature)

This Tapestry

Early light glows softly on these smooth white trunks
these dappled leaves.
Messmates stand darker and in black
their rough bark holding shade that Mountain Gums release.

Noble trees these are in whites, blushed pinks and greys
trunks so smooth they ask the hand to stay
to rest upon the side,
no rough exterior, coarse cloth, or outer shell that hides.

Mountain Gums wear their nakedness with pride
and once a year like children at the beach they peel
leaving strips of bark upon the forest floor,
fresh delicate new tones they reveal.

Intertwined sinuous upright they weave
majestic within this tapestry of trees.

About This Poem

About the Author

Country/Region: AUS

Comments

Morgana Tragic…

17 years 2 months ago

Hey Craig, Told ya I had to

Hey Craig, Told ya I had to read some of your stuff!! Love this one, though, the imagery of the trees as a tapestry and all. Psychedelic! Love the colors, how you call the trees noble...just a beautiful write, my friend. Peace and Love katie

Craig Norris

17 years 2 months ago

Where's the jelly beans..

Thanks Katie, I love my trees, perhaps I was a tree herder in a former time when Ents and Entwives took a long time to say anything at all. Craig.

Cloudthings

17 years 2 months ago

Heart touching tree touching

They ARE so beautiful, & you have captured that so beautifully in the tapestry of your words here actually... I know these trees really well & you are so right about the invitation to the hands, it's compelling. You write with a great deal of sensuality Craig, feels like you had a real meditation with the tree... ent like indeed. I don't know that I could ever settle in another country (or even in the city for that matter) I'd miss the gums too much, the ghost gums especially, with their silk like smooth trunks. Cheers Anni "Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about ideas, language, and even the phrase, "each other" doesn't make any sense."

Craig Norris

17 years 2 months ago

Ghost gums...

I knew this guy once and about all I remember of him is that he made the comment that when he died he wanted to be buried vertically. You know, drill a hole in the ground and bury him standing up, and plant a Ghost Gum on top. I was so taken with the idea, as it really deals with a couple of issues, the dead take up less room standing than lying down, and we get to plant more trees that are seriously fertilized. Thanks for callin' Anni, cheers back at ya. Craig.

faerybeki

17 years 2 months ago

a beautifully descriptive

a beautifully descriptive poem, some lovely imagery, i particularly like the idea of the trees peeling off their bark like kids at the beach!! I am not familiar with gum trees but you sure make them sound beautiful!! top job!! take care b x

Craig Norris

17 years 2 months ago

"these trees were my friends"

Thanks Bek, when these Mountain Gums peel the colours are truely incredible, fresh and soft and delicate. The downside that can bring much grief, is that after about three years the bark and leaves that accumulate on the forest floor, start to present as a serious fuel hazard, which can if ignited in the heat of summer get quite out of control. Cheers Craig.

Arrow

17 years 2 months ago

Nature lover

I'm a sucker for a forest poem. When I was healthier, I was a member of a forest hiking club. You've written another lyrical, sensual poem. I especially like the simile in stanza 4. I wish you'd pay a bit more attention to punctuation in places (e.g., I had to read line 5 several times to understand what "whites blushed pinks" meant. I assume it is supposed to be: whites, blushed pinks and greys?) I also wonder if you could work a little rhyme into stanza 1 b/c it worked so well in the other stanzas. (See what happens when you set the bar high? Nit-picking!)

Craig Norris

17 years 2 months ago

I shall tend these things.

I must admit to a little secret pleasure in that you had to read line five several times, but will you read it more now it is done? I have also looked at the rhyme in stanza 1, and yes, yes, that too is done. Nit-picking can be such fun. Thank you Arrow, may the forest give you strength. Craig.

Pamela A. Lamppa

16 years 7 months ago

Lovely Internal rhyme

There is lovely internal rhyme in this poem. Had to figure out Messmate and assume it is a tree with Mountain Gums etc. It is quite a dance between these two. I enjoyed this.

Craig Norris

16 years 7 months ago

yes the Messmate is a Eucalypte

and where I am at nine hundred metres above sea level on the southwestern slopes of the Snowies here in Oz, they are fairly common, they grow together with the Mountain Gums. Happy that you enjoy this one, these trees form a cicle around my house, which is on the side of a hill, so on the topside I look up into this wall of trees, and on the bottom side I'm looking through them at a height halfway up their trunks, so I look at trees from both sides now...from up and down... Cheers Craig

Pamela A. Lamppa

16 years 7 months ago

That is so cool. I tried to

That is so cool. I tried to find images of this tree, but no luck. Does it go by any other name other than eucalyptus? I would to see and compare the bark - like you did in your poem.

Craig Norris

16 years 7 months ago

I think there are well over a hundred types of Eucalyptes

Messmate is the common name for these, the Botanic name I'm afraid I don't know, but yes it is quite interesting if you have a thing for trees, the Alpine Gums which are also found around here and higher up, have a skirt of peeling bark that extends some five or six metres from the ground and from there the trunks are as smooth as, in the same shades of greys and whites and pinks as the Mountain Gums. I won't even begin to tell you about the Ironbarks. Not much help I'm afraid. cheers Craig