Tree
Tree
standing
in the park,
home for squirrels,
birds, insects, lichen,
spiders, whispers, leaf, moths,
woodlands, oak, cooling shade,
beech, conifer, yew, lime, and ash,
ancient temperate rainforests lung—
lobaria pulmonaria’s breath!
Don’t cut
me down
Lesley Scoble, December 2024
NOTES
Lobaria pulmonaria (tree lungwort) is an enormous lichen and is an indicator of ancient temperate rainforest, of which only fragments remain alive in the UK.
Resource: The British Lichen Society and The Woodland Trust
I wrote Tree in response to the d’Verse Poets MTB: The Etheree Tree poetry prompt. Hosted by Laura Bloomsbury.
The Etheree Poetry Prompt Details
The poetry theme for this MTB is to write a poem about a generic or particular:
Christmas tree(s) imagery, meanings, memories etc
or Conifer/Fir tree(s) imagery, mythology, memories etc
2. The poetry style of your poem follows the form of an Etheree:
- must be an unrhymed poem
- no specific meter
- one stanza only
- 10 lines with no paragraphs
- graduating from 1 to 10 syllables
- [add lines 11 & 12 with just 2 syllables per line – my optional extra]
Thus the first line is monosyllabic; the second line has two syllables, and so on, until there’s ten syllables on the tenth line (then reverts to 2 syllables for lines 11 & 12 if you want this optional extra). The outline of your poem takes the concrete shape of a fir tree. Centre it on the page else left or right aligned it’s only half a tree! (X=syllables not words)
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THANKS
My thanks to Laura and the d’Verse Poets Pub for the inspiring etheree poetry form prompt.
Thank you, dear reader, for reading!
Lesley lives in the City of London Square Mile. An artist, actor and sculptor (her first ceramic sculpture won the V&A inspired by… Award). Scenic artist & book illustrator, playwright (her musical play, Rapscallion performed in inner city schools and theatre school); TV dancer; mime artist; Animator and illustrator for TV production. Set up Pinecone Studios Ltd and IIMSI Ltd drama and filmmaking workshops in London – producing award-winning films made by children.
LesleyScoble.com 
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