The Tree

The gnarled roots of wisdom,

Ringed with circles of love and longing.

The girdle of strength and determination, 

Can encompass more than four arms of joy.

The vales and valleys of wood,

Nestle a whole new world.

Life in all its forms, shapes,sizes,hues and hoots. 

The Sun sparkles through the green and brown canopy,

Ricocheting off the springy surfaces,creating a mist of brightness. 

Secrets of yore transpire between the,

Azure blue and bottle green. 

And twisted lanes of concrete paper,

Bend with the wind's song.

It looks down upon,

Books between two pairs of eyes left unread;

Salinity of labour wafting off tired limbs;

Stories from knobbly hands passing on to pudgy fingers;

and

Wisdom given to pristine minds.

It is beautiful,generous, kind, and warm.

Taking everything in its embrace, 

The parching heat,raging storm and 

Sometimes the painful shrieks of the mournful heart.

Standing tall and proud, 

The umbrella of grandeur mulls its destiny.

How long , before it falls to cold steel,

And not blazing silver?

It wonders. 

It will take that too with silent fortitude, 

As it has done for the past anons.

Its silent transparent tears will then mingle,

With the dusty brown and moss green.

And somewhere, maybe one pair of eyes, 

When rove over the royal blue moving on milky white,

It hopes.

They remember the cool warmth of the,

Green and brown canopy and,

Steady comfort of its' girdle of love.

And.

Ring in the circle of fire to save the destruction of its wisdom. 

Written on 29th August, 2009. 

(I love trees !!!!!!! They are very beautiful, intriguing , full of secrets and silent conscience keepers. So a tribute to The Tree. And I find this a decent poem, full of allusions and metaphors more than I usually write maybe because I wrote after a long time and many false starts. Would like to explain one thing though the line " Sometimes the painful shrieks of the mournful heart" stems from the scene in Hero Hiralal * Naseerudin Shah and the first and last movie of Sanjana Kapoor where when they are sad they go to a Banyan tree hug it and cry their hearts out . both Dida and I wanted to do that haven't done it yet.

pictures courtesy : Rahul Sheel http://www.flickr.com/photos/rahulsheel/3196516176/ )