Dearest Forest

---

Dearest Forest,

I’ve loved our time together,
Shared adventures in all the weather.
Being among your trees
Listening
To the wind rustle the leaves
On warm summer days.
Watching
Bare branches scrap and sway
In the clear blue skies on winter days.
Witnessing
The miracle of buds to leaves
Through the misty rains of spring.
Taking in
Stunning colors that seem to sing.
Enjoying 
The crunch that only fall brings.

With you 
I got to view
Life go round
In the critters playground.
While the sun filtered down
Like a glowing gown
Laying upon my skin
Sending the world into a spin.
Hidden
Beneath the wild mistletoe, 
There we declared our bond.
But I couldn’t protect you from the foe,
For man’s progress, I could not slow.

My heart aches to see you go.
Like a trail of dominoes,
Leveled.
Replaced
By a sea of gray
Walls, bridges, even a beltway.
Our paradise is no more.
I'm now trapped with no door.
As you are hauled to the yard,
We are all marred.

My love you know,
I have no doubt.
I wish my letter rang
With joy throughout.
Farewell, I must bid instead.
Heavy my heart does tread.
Life’s breath endures another hole
Mourning your loss - the toll.
Forever remembered you’ll be
In pictures and paintings in the gallery.
I’m sorry they couldn’t realize,
With their own eyes,
The gift you were sent to be…
Full of life-giving, beautiful trees.


With my affection and loving memories,
Earth

---

Earlier in the week Sherry at earthweal asked us to think about deforestation in our area, and write about the trees in our part of the world. I did not get a chance to write my poem in time to link up, so I am linking up with earthweal’s Open Link Weekend #62.

The woods in my area are being cut down at a rapid rate to make room for the huge boom in growth we are experiencing. I thought our home was perfect when we moved here 10 years ago. I loved all the trees around us. So I find all this new construction/destruction to be sad, almost unrecognizable. You know it’s bad when you are driving your usual route to a location you visit every week and your child says, “We’ve never gone this way before.”

The line from the Counting Crows song Big Yellow Taxi often plays through my mind,

” They paved paradise and put up a parking lot”

Big Yellow Taxi – song by Counting Crows

Listen to the song here, https://youtu.be/ypYQhTlakEo

For my poem, I decided to take my love for the woods and write it like a love letter from the earth.

Photo: Pexels

Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful day.
With a grateful heart,
Heather

© Heather ~ Home Study From The Grateful Heart All Rights Reserved