February Challenge

Gilly J · Subject: February Challenge Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:26 pm

Eunice will set the theme for this month, then choose a winner at the end of the month who will choose the next month's theme.

Good luck everyone.

Eunice Perkins · Subject: Re: February Challenge Tue Feb 09, 2010 8:42 am

Hi everyone. The theme for february is:......

Forest and trees.

karen · Subject: Poplar Grove Tue Feb 09, 2010 12:36 pm

Poplar Grove

I sit observing, six poplar trees
towering over me, swaying in unison
whispering through rustling leaves.
I am enchanted,
bewitched and held captive
at this majestic sight.
Planted as if by a magical hand,
generating a soothing motion,
speaking in foreign tongue,
swaying to the solitary beat
of a distant wind.
I sit observing, six poplar trees
writing on parchment
my final memoirs,
etched as if into the very
fibres of the trees.
They belong to my world
towering over my garden
making suburbia
feel like the new forest.
I sit observing, six poplar trees,
I am enchanted,
they enchant my world
by living at the bottom of
Poplar Grove.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Where I used to live my garden was
surrounded by Poplar trees, I could see
six standing tall if I stood at the bottom
of the garden, they seemed to whisper
as the wind blew through their leaves

Val · Subject: Re: February Challenge Tue Feb 09, 2010 3:05 pm

I wrote this some time ago, but can't remember if I have ever posted it before...

Death Of A Tree

Gone, is the landmark that showed me
from the main road where my house stood.
They came and cut down the huge Scots Pine
that stood at the back of our gardens,
on the other side of the lane.
For 15 years, we, my husband, neighbours and I,
had watched the antics of the Rooks
who nested in the Rookery at the top of the tree
and other birds going to and fro.

With chainsaws, ropes, tackle and lots of noise,
they cut the tree apart, piece by piece,
leaving until last the top most branches with their nests.
The next day, those also had gone.
I didn't interfere though I was very tempted,
but I'd arrived home on the Tuesday,
from work far too late.
They had already cut off the lower branches.
We couldn't have done anything anyway,
there is no preservation order on Scots Pines.

A few branches were dead,
it was very old,
maybe it was diseased?
Perhaps the people in the new house built close to the tree
thought it might fall on them one day?

Whatever the reason it is gone,
nothing can bring it back.
Seems terrible that a tree
taking close to 100 years to grow that large,
can be reduced to firewood in a few hours.

I feel sorry for the Rooks,
where will they nest now?
We shall miss them,
but mostly we will miss the tree.
In time, I suppose,
we can get used to the empty space in the sky
where it grew.

_________________

Regards Val

Doreen Hampshire · Subject: My place of dreams Tue Feb 09, 2010 6:35 pm

My place of dreams

I dreamt that I was walking
Through a forest filled with trees
Whilst on the ground lay a blanket
Of different coloured leaves

Such harmony of trees and flowers
Before the rising sun
These are the gifts of glory
For the day has just begun.

I hear the rustling of trees
And smell fragrance in the air
I stand and look around me
And I didn’t have a care

Gentle blue skies and misty sunshine
In this wild and lovely place
Such a place can lift the heart
While putting a smile on my face

Then as daylight fades to dust
I watch as sunset gleams
Among the beauty through the trees
This is my place of dreams

Doreen E Hampshire

February 2010

_________________
free glitter text and family website at FamilyLobby.com

Gilly J · Subject: Re: February Challenge Tue Feb 09, 2010 6:45 pm

Thank you for setting the theme, Eunice, and what a brilliant set of entries to start it off. Good luck everyone. Gilly x

Steve · Subject: Re: February Challenge Sat Feb 20, 2010 12:50 am

.
Mighty Oak.

.

Your hollow trunk heart, now invisible
True age of your many seasons unknown
The rings of your years indivisible
Gnarled bark and mighty girth, history shown
Kings, Queens, even Empires you have seen fall
Shedding your acorns to the winds of time
Always standing firm and growing so tall
Canopy leaves continue, spread, and climb

In this millennium, you stand-alone
Apart from forest, an ancient few
If you could speak, of things you may have known
England’s heritage Mighty Oak or Yew

Standing proud, while you’re contemporary
Lay in Tudor ships, deep beneath the sea
.

crushed rose · Subject: Re: February Challenge Sun Feb 21, 2010 11:38 pm

...
The hint of rushing water caught my ear
Brought to me on the gentle, spring like breeze
Though hidden from sight, it sounded so near
As I wandered in peaceful, sunlit leaze
Following the sound toward the field edge
There I found a rainwater swollen stream
Disappearing beneath a bramble hedge
Beyond which danced a tantalising gleam

A copse of leaf bare trees stood guardian
Over a narrow muddy fox made run
Entrance into this world arcadian
Ivy clad, hawthorn spiked, shaded from sun

Suddenly, a glorious tumbling white
Water, falling, frothing, torrential sight
...

backstreetdreamer · Number of posts: 238 Points: 462 Registration date: 2008-11-19

Across the green meadow come whispers of Summer
Like quietness painting the twilight soft seas,
Gently blown like a soft conversation of motion
Are the gesturing arms of an ocean of trees,
Yet the evening still waits to adorn all its jewels
For the sweet dancing forest is still steeped in shade,
Like an ebony nightgown that swirled in diffusion
And shattered the sunset before it could fade.

Far off in the pinewoods, a fox hails the night
With the sound of a predator’s ancient disdain,
As it hid in the bracken and sniffed at the air
Where its chestnut fur costume was cloaked from the rain,
And the silent dark curtain was drawn on the day
Like a book being closed when the hours grow long,
As the tree branches bow like the servants of midnight
And the newly sprung leaves play a rataplan song.

Then the hoot of the owl warns the small furry prowlers
To hurry back home to their soft grass lined nests,
For the night can be cruel when the moon lights the forest
And they know that the lord of the night never rests,
Though the hours pass slowly, they pass all the same
As the night’s fading shadows entwine with the dawn,
While the forest grows tired though it’s trees touch the sky
To acknowledge the morning that soon will be born…

Rowan Hicks · Subject: Chainsaw Mon Feb 22, 2010 8:09 pm

Chainsaw

The sound swells as you approach the clearing.

The once niggling, insect whine
Becomes a braying, donkey shriek
As you push through the last of the thicket and
Behold the bite of steel on wood.

The mute agony of sap-filled branch and bole
speaks a litany of pleading to -
No witness.

No witness save the leering cutter,
Proud of his executioner's craft amid
Petrol fumes and sawdust snow.

Teeth gouge more insistently, irreverent to
Grain and grandeur, pursuing the fast buck
With high-pitched diligence.

The crack.
The groan.
The all-too-human groan of finality.
The crash.
Supine surrender.

You turn and steal away in the sudden,
Guilt-ridden silence.
You could have intervened...
... But you have acquiesced.

You acquiesce in the greying
Of the world.

No witness.

Eunice Perkins · Subject: Re: February Challenge Tue Feb 23, 2010 7:05 am

These are all such wonderful poems. I am going to have a hard time in choosing the winner!!! I love them all.

Eunice Perkins · Subject: Re: February Challenge Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:46 am

There are so many gems here. It has been a difficult decision but I have finally chosen Steve's lovely poem. I though it fitted the theme the closest of all.

Thank you all who entered their excellent poems.

Steve · Subject: Re: February Challenge Wed Mar 03, 2010 12:25 am

Eeeek thanks Eunice.. Shocked

New challenge on the way Wink

_________________
Steve
www.noaddress.co.uk

Val · Subject: Re: February Challenge Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:30 pm

Well done, Steve, it is a lovely poem.

_________________

Regards Val

Gilly J · Subject: Re: February Challenge Thu Mar 04, 2010 7:52 am

Thankyou for choosing the winner, Eunice, and well done Steve!