Thursday, May 01, 2008

the tree

.
This week on (fiction) friday we have been given the task of writing about a tree. This is my contribution
'
'
One hundred years ago, a hundred acorns landed on the ground around an old oak tree that had stood there for a hundred years.

Most simply rotted away. But their decomposition was not in vain, for they lived on in the soil enriching it to the benefit of those which survived.

A few years later one sturdy sapling stood tall, reaching toward the sun, soaking up the rain and steadfastly resisting the wind.

In time the stout sapling became a tree. An oak tree.

In the years that followed it looked on as successive generations came and went.

Small children climbed onto to its branches, the same branches that played host to the birds that wove their intricate nests amid the twigs and leaves.

Hearts were carved into its bark in which couples declared their undying love for each other.
'
Squirrels scampered up and down with their cargo of nuts whilst brightly painted woodpeckers rat-a-tatted away busily creating hollow caves in the mighty oaks massive trunk.

The ravages of the weather left it unmoved. From the coldest winters to the hottest summers, it took everything in its stride. It never failed to produce a canopy of greenest green with every new spring and palette of extraordinary colours with the onset of each autumn.

But for the first time in its existence it received a threat. A threat too great to resist. The place that it had made its home for a hundred years was to become home to a hundred families in a hundred new dwellings.
'
*

The day before it meets its untimely end, a small child gathers up a handful of acorns which have fallen to the ground. In the next hundred years one of these tiny green acorns will grow into a mighty oak that his children and his children’s children will climb, and carve and love.
'
.

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for dropping by my blog at Toddler Humor. Actually, I have 2 more blogs, a relationship/family blog at MomDadChat (which is the more active one) and a poems blog.
    Anyway, I like the pic you have at the top. And green acorns growing into a mighty oak? Sure, I love to see that!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I <3 trees. In fact, I want my next tattoo to be a big honkin' huge old burr oak with my children and husband's names worked in ... a family tree.

    Tree tree tree.


    La la la.

    -J

    ReplyDelete
  3. What, no poem about a tree?

    x

    ReplyDelete
  4. The trees have leafed out beautifully here. I can no longer see the road from my window. We have mostly maples, beech and birch (and buckeye, the weed of the tree world), but we do have a few oaks. We tried to put the house on the spot with the fewest trees. It was hard to cut them down, even though we only cut down about 6 and we still have hundreds more.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This was a very wonderful post Keith. I love it. Reminds me of one of Shel Silversteins poem the giving tree. Love it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I saw that galore comment young man LMAO!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have missed reading your words....always touching. I am exhausted and I seem to have lost my will to write for the time being. But I miss my friends and I think of you everytime I walk into my daughter's room and see your postcards.

    All my love

    ~Darlin~

    ReplyDelete
  8. nice story. Each year when the acorns fall I sweep them from the drive and each year we have at least a dozen sprout new life.
    nice post.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Keith,
    I enjoyed your post. It too made me think of the Giving Tree, but it's so much more positive and hopeful. My children love to collect acorns, and I'm going to share your story with them.

    Thank you!

    ReplyDelete