Trees

(Which picture is your favrite? I have to pick one for a photo submission)

Chiseled from the moon,

Flakes fall to Earth,

Slipping between

Cracks in the clouds.

Such moon dust falls sweetly to

Still trees bear of their fruits.

Dancing branches tangle like

Lace left intertwined on

Black sheets;

Lightning bolts stopped deep into

The night when sleep has

Fallen to eyes like snow to trees. 

I always get really sad when trees get cut down.

My backyard used to be a luscious forest of pines and maples, so good for climbing and so good for hiding. I would make blanket forts on their branches and dig holes to "catch rabbits" in. I would climb to the tops, but never remember how to get back down. I would dream of the incredible treehouses we could build, so high up from the rest of the world. Build our nests above the rooftops and watch the ants go by. Read more »

There are so many things
that no one would ever know,
like the way I always sit
on the edge of my bed,
staring straight out
my fingerprinted
window.

Things change
and life goes on;
the seasons switch
and all the trees will fall.

Yes, the trees,
not the leaves or the shades
that so brilliantly haze
in our memories
of false goldens and
bronzes
(Always defining
either first place
or third) Read more »

In spring it is lovely
To step outside your door,
And enter into a world unknown
New, untouched, inviting,
Different than any other place
You've ever known before,
An escape from the overwhelming
Busy work of
our modern way of life.

So we set off through the field,
Two brothers,
And a sister, me,
To trod the well worn path
That leads to heart of the woods.

Soon our feet chose
To stray from usual path,
So up they brought us,
Round trees and rocks
With no aim but to wander.

Then to ford our first stream
And take up a stroll,
Happy to walk where we please, Read more »

In spring it is lovely
To step outside your door,
And enter into a world unknown
New, untouched, inviting,
Different than any other place
You've ever known before,
An escape from the overwhelming
Busy work of
our modern way of life.

So we set off through the field,
Two brothers,
And a sister, me,
To trod the well worn path
That leads to heart of the woods.

Soon our feet chose
To stray from usual path,
So up they brought us,
Round trees and rocks
With no aim but to wander.

Then to ford our first stream
And take up a stroll,
Happy to walk where we please, Read more »

Friendly Trees
By
Maya Redington
I once met a friendly tree
Everyday she would wave at me
But wherever she waved,
Her branches would crave,
That she stopped waving crazily

Stormy nights
Rain pounds
Trees sway
Wind whistles
Branches break
And plunge to the muddy ground

In my room
I feel the cold
And huddle in my soft blanket

The lights flicker
The generator grumbles-
In the blink of an eye
The house splits

Fast as lightning
I bolt downstairs
To see a tree
Crushing the kitchen.

Until the world beckons our swift return,
I'll sit with her beneath a sapling tree
Her arms conjoining perfectly to me,
As if our bodies never could adjourn.
To be forever one is what we'd yearn.
I'd wish that time would lack the skills to see,
So its restraints could break and set us free.
Yet we'd obey our clocks; their wills so stern.

Perhaps one day a riot to their crime,
Would cease our love's restriction to a day.
And when we've conquered every bit of time,
The roots around us would decide to stay
And grow into our bodies as they climb, Read more »

I would come back as an oak tree
Tall and mighty
Beautiful and true
Polar opposites
but
In oaks they are one
One as day and night are one
One as a forest's trees are all one
One as my fingers are one
One and the same
All there together
Working as one
Combined to form something
Better
Stronger
Safer
Even more beautiful
Than we can hope to comprehend....

The Trees Song
As I stood at the field
With the trees on its edge all along

Swayed with the wind
giving me their joyful song Read more »

These truncated roots no longer appeal.
You have the remedy, concealed within a life.
Obliviously generating strife.
A potent fixture to it all.
Like letters on a stall,
Temporary visions prolonged.
Lives continuously wronged.
Break them free, let them see.
Quench the gasping tree.
Mend its dismal root.
Invalidate the moot.

Winter morning of shattering silence,
a rainbow of frosty blues and twilight purples
Indigo fingers grip the cloudless sky with frostbite
The barn roof graced by a snowflake symphony;
each shingle a frozen scale of a grandfather dinosaur
The horses’ soft breath collides with the coldness
as ice air swims through their lungs
Frost plagues the humbled land with a frigid disease
The skeletons of trees are naked, mechanical,
barren to bones by the north wind’s savagery
Their ebony shadows emerge in the lavender sunrise,
silently shivering in the icy tranquility of winter Read more »

Winter sunrise serenity

By Meghan Lavoie
Rice Memorial High School, Grade 9

Winter morning of shattering silence,
a rainbow of frosty blues and twilight purples
Indigo fingers grip the cloudless sky with frostbite
The barn roof graced by a snowflake symphony;
each shingle a frozen scale of a grandfather dinosaur
The horses’ soft breath collides with the coldness
as ice air swims through their lungs
Frost plagues the humbled land with a frigid disease
The skeletons of trees are naked, mechanical,
barren to bones by the north wind’s savagery
Their ebony shadows emerge in the lavender sunrise,
silently shivering in the icy tranquility of winter Read more »

barely fifty degrees,
but the radiating sun still shines,
transforming my summer-goldened strands of hair
into flying sparks of fire
the wind gently sighs,
lifting them so they contrast against
a miraculously auburn landscape
the sight will be blazed into my memory
for the eternity of winters
dry summer dust trudges across
the leave-dominated stone path
it craves the rain that summer so readily supplied,
but that fall is so stingy about
as my taste buds swim in a macintosh apple sea,
geese sorrowfully sound off overhead;
they sing of summer's majesty,
but reluctantly grieve autumn's victory
in the battle of seasons
blushing trees cry tangerine teardrops,
wondering why their heirloom jewels are being taken
the frail leaves scuttle about the dying grass,
weathered brown like a grandfather's wise face,
each deepening wrinkle a tribute
to a life experience they once enriched in
they dream of the three months
of luscious emerald glory they basked in
dreading now how they are humbled as we all are
to the frigid, indifferent earth.
when the shattering silence of winter deafens me,
i will only look into my picture of autumn
to remember a kingdom ablazed in ruby Read more »

If trees could talk,
what would they tell us?
Would they tell of the happy times?
Children climbing through
their sturdy branches,
birds nesting
year after year,
squirrels living in
their hollow trunks,
wind whishing through their branches
making their own sweet lullaby,
the changing of the seasons:
losing their leaves in fall;
the cold and loneliness of winter;
the bloom and beauty of spring;
and the heat of summer bearing down on them
as they shelter the animals in their cool shadow,
and the crickets
humming their sweet song below
nestled in their roots.
What of the sad times?
Watching, helpless,
as their brother trees are cut down,
wondering, “Will I be next?”
Seeing parents pulling their children away,
“It’s too dangerous. Do not climb again.”
Watching as the people destroy their
beautiful land around them,
just to build more houses and expand towns.
The silence as the birds leave them,
and the squirrels run away to safety. Read more »

You stand there
The scene is lovely, serene.
It is quiet in the woods.

You are breathless,
Yet you breathe
In the air
Between the trees.

Frosty red mittens,
Numb fingers.

Delicate snowflakes
Shimmer in the sun,
Peeking between the
Snow covered boughs.

A forest.

Bark of birch trees
Curls around the breeze
That blows a dusting of snow
Onto my cheeks,
And then to the ground.

The old trees
Are lonely here.
In this lifeless world
Of snow.
Only snow.

You stand there.
It is quiet in the woods.

It is quiet in the glades.

The trees seem to sprout
From the silvery snow
Their trunks bathed in winter light
They just emerge from the frozen landscape,
Mysteriously
As if their hearts are frozen
In ice

The trees
Create, with icy talons
A clutching, frozen canopy
That overwhelms the sky
Clawing at nothingness,
They make it
Hard to breathe

The trees
Attack the air
Attempting to tear away
The clouded glass
To see
What lies beyond the sky
Beyond their knowing

So the trees grow
Climbing higher and higher,
Grasping, clutching
Trying, trying so hard
With icy breath and frozen tears,
Snowy trunks and crystalline branches,
Trying so, so hard
To reach beyond their icy limitations
To reach the untouchable
Sky

Don't waste a tree!
use the back side of the paper,
Don't waste a tree!
When you cut down too many trees it causes a caper,
Don't waste a tree!
Never through paper out,
Don't waste a tree!
Recycle with out a doubt.
Don;t waste a tree!
Buy recycled products,
Don't waste a tree!
It's not just all about us!
Don't waste a tree!
You need the trees,
Don't waste a tree!
Way more than you need your car keys.
(We need clean air to breathe.)
Don't waste a tree!
Did you hear me?!?
I said ,
" Don't Waste A Tree!!!"

Here is a great poem by one of my students. The imagery of the scenes really evoke the color green to me.

Vermont is Green
By Jacob Trahan

The color green
Reminds me of
Rolling pastures
Through the Green Mountains.
So dazzling and gorgeous,
Bringing to mind
My soul and
Making my heart soar.
As green as the grass is, though,
There’s always something greener
On the other side
Of the fence of life
That draws consideration to how much I adore
The lovely charm of Vermont
And its people.

Deep is the heart of the wood tranquil silence surrounds me, intoxicates me, and fills my lungs with cool damp air. I stay undisturbed in my hidden glad, watch the faint orange and gold shimmering of the sun above through the canopy. It is timeless as I lay on a gnarled root as large as a bed. The trees are my protectors, guardians of the glad as I lay there undisturbed and the day slips past. Read more »

A huge billowing fire
Erupting from the mountain side
Engulfing the entire mountain in flames
It leaps this way and that
Swirling about in beautiful colors
Gold, scarlet, tangerine, and yellow
But this is no fire, it is the autumn trees bursting to life

A huge billowing fire
Erupting from the mountain side
Engulfing the entire mountain in flames
It leaps this way and that
Swirling about in beautiful colors
Gold, scarlet, tangerine, and yellow
But this is no fire, it is the autumn trees bursting to life

The Sight of Trees

My favorite tree is the peach tree in my back yard
Big enough to hold peaches, but small enough to see over the top of
When I look out of my window every morning and every evening I can see it
My favorite time to look at it is when the glow of the sunset is hitting it Read more »