Roots

“Why did the grove undress itself only to wait for the snow?”

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Roots

~

this fall the maples will drop their leaves
and again stand nude in the winter freeze
what is it they keep thinking
there’s no tellin’ with them trees

do they forget about the snow
that the cold cold wind’ll blow
perhaps they keep imagining
a warmer place that they might go

maybe dreamin’ they will run
down to the land of surf and sun
but they just can’t escape their roots
a brutal challenge for everyone

~ ~ ~

rob kistner © 2019


 

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    Tuesday Poetics: The Question as Poetry

  • 35 thoughts on “Roots”

    1. You rocked the prompt. I went off on a tangent, whereby I thought the whole poem should be rhetorical questions, and the Neruda line gets worked it. Yours is bang on, clever, humorous, and metaphorical.

    2. These lines reminded me that, unlike birds, trees cannot migrate:
      ‘do they forget about the snow
      that the cold cold wind’ll blow
      perhaps they keep imagining
      a warmer place that they might go’
      and then I thought of the old nursery rhyme/song:
      ‘the north wind doth blow
      and we shall have snow,
      but what will the robin do then, poor thing?’
      Made me shiver!

    3. I like the ignorance of the trees – that they undress only to find themselves in winter. Maybe they dream of warmer climes – maybe they don’t mind.

      Thanks for joining in – that Neruda quote is one most of us have chosen it seems – topical anyway for the season

    4. I don’t usually do this, but I’m going to offer a suggestion: instead of “but they just can’t escape their roots” what about “they can’t just escape….” ? I read it the second way on my first skim, and then found the more common “just can’t” jarring on the second read.

      Thoughts? (and apologies, and thanks for letting me mess with your lovely poem!)

      1. Thank you Xan for caring enough to comment. The dropping of “g’s” on the ends of a couple of words, as well as the choice and positioning of certain words in certain phrases (including ‘just can’t’ and ‘them trees’), where done to bring a lighter colloquial feel to the piece. It was a creative attempt, to make the statement of the universal reality, regarding the near impossibility of anyone ever truly escaping one’s roots, hit harder and land heavier.

    5. a powerful metaphor … our roots/background shape but don’t define us … I’m heading to the surf and sun 😉

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