• Share

  Tweet

• how it works
• 

---

Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Hard and Soft (04/23/09)

---

• TITLE: A Remarkable Tree | Previous Challenge Entry
  By Sonya Leigh
  04/30/09
• 
  
  
    LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE
    SEND A PRIVATE COMMENT
    ADD TO MY FAVORITES

---

If you’re a Tree
you enjoy
a remarkable life,


Your leaves
yawn and reach
across branches
in murmurous motion;


Your flowers
bourgeon upon clusters
of green,
but then, bow
their blossoms
to
fade and yield
to their successors:


Your fruit
sprouting in its due season.


Then, in final vociferation,
your leaves paint
edges of earth and sky
in speechless shades of wonder,
without a care


To dance with opus wind,
twirling, spinning,
doubled in perfect harmony,
yellow over orange,
like colorful skaters
tracing the chill
of night
until they land softly,
gracefully, upon
the hard soil
at your feet.


What a sight.


If you kept your dying leaves,
alongside the new
would the Old choke them
like a right arm choking left
to render you
without
life and limb?


The contrast of soft, colorful leaves
under your rock-solid trunk
captivates me.
Though your leaves,
are full of splendor
and beauty,
there is no mistake:
leaves
without core
can not survive,
for the strength of the tree
lies in its base.


But I am a man, not a tree
though I am soft to some degree
I can be hard,
(like you in many parts)
And I have difficulty
letting go.
Each old leaf means something
to me.


So I have hung on
to leaves of color
but nonetheless, dying,
unlovely comments,
and wrongful deeds,
done to me
and which I have done.


I have hung on


To many dead leaves
that should have been shed.


If I were dead
to those colorful leaves,
wrongful, shameful
colorful leaves,
I would not feel
hot wind ripping my branches
nor would I count
the leaves
falling to ground
in pairs.
Life always comes
back around
and mercy abounds


They say,
some trees,
like massive Redwoods
in the Northwest,
are so old
that neither branches nor leaves
can be seen
unless
stretching my neck
and cupping hands
I shield my eyes
and look
high up into the sky.


That’s how I want to be known one day.
my identity
swallowed up
in love and care
wrapped in the massive
trunk and wisdom
of God
who made you and me
so that
When others look,
they May see
Him
And That Remarkable Tree
on Calvary


Instead of me.

---

---

---

The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.

---

Accept Jesus as Your Lord and Savior Right Now - CLICK HERE
JOIN US at FaithWriters for Free. Grow as a Writer and Spread the Gospel.

---