Symbolically concerned
dodona oak (the tree of life) sheds leaves
Nutritious-which feeds blood and mind today
There’s not a jot (from which the present cleaves)
Can be dispensed with – all life’s array
From first to last has leaf-mould in its clay
Eve is that apple she took her bite from
The best and worst can’t thwart its dna
Head-shaking won’t dislodge that first aplomb
Which even now keeps thought under its thumb
So much in self cries out to be made clear
A yearning glimpse confused by so much bracken
A touch of gold the sun wrings from the drear
And lightest hopes too often seem to thicken
Fulfilments near at hand come cradled stricken
(oh read the cards – they’re face down in the mud)
But figures at the dawnside faintly beckon
Step back from grief or wrath – an untouched bud
Dares to suggest a wisp of hidden good
Not to be made too much of but discerned
And wrought into a pendant (gold inlaid)
Where tree and flesh (symbolically concerned)
Look to a future longing for their trade
The apples fall but core is not dismayed
Behaviour’s but a passing itch or sneeze
(a moment’s cost but plaster-cast not jade)
In caverns long sight-lost an ancient frieze
Cries for new eyes again (a smarter breeze)
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