Tree Poetry

The magnificence of Trees and their powerful presence in our landscape have moved countless people to want to express what they feel in encountering these living beings. Often the only way to come close to expressing what we sense is through poetry (or should it be called "poetree" here?).
We have gathered a large selection for you here: some whole poems, others fragments which convey some particular emotion evoked by trees. They are ordered alphabetically by the names of the poets in 3 pages. Please let us know if you have anything you would like to add to this collection, either by an existing author or anything you have written yourself.

invocations

1.
Where are my companions
of the sacred grove?
Twenty two
fasten the thicket
wherein shelters the white hind,
beneath the wild apple
tree of immortality, through wisdom.
The maiden only touches
and stills the tremor of his stance,
She, being wisdom herself.

2.
See the three shrouded women
at rest amongst the willows,
above, the cranes fly
forming sounds in silent flight.
The sky belongs to the young man
with winged heals
and yet, concealed, the wierd of word
escapes his realm of stealth.
The crescent moon only
beholds these old secrets.

3.
Midsummer days of burning oak
and stringent smoke on laboured breath
brings mercy from the soil
where toil rewards, and blessings yet remain.
But who knows the ways of the sun
and where she sets, or when?
Should we flee as the fast spear
whose tears gather our sadness?
Or light the evening earth, only
remembering dawns eternal lust.

                          Jane M.Judge

The talking oak
To the ancient spoke.
But any tree
Will talk to me.

Mary Carolyn Davies