Hold me, hold me, hold me tight,
I get frightened in the night
by those birds and possums too,
I feel safe when I’m with you!
Tag Archives: trees
How Trees Grow by Jennie Fraine
Leave a commentHow Trees Grow
First, they listen to the wind’s ideas
and take notes.
They suck nutriment from the soil
but never forget their manners.
They bathe regularly in rain
and soak their feet in special solutions.
Measuring distances from star to star
they dream of universal travels.
Also, they touch each other kindly
and play host to thousands of guests.
Jennie Fraine
Jenny said: This poem was published in 1993 in a booklet I prepared and printed myself, to share with children as I spoke to them in schools about the mystery and magic, the pure possibility, of poetry. The poems had originally been written for other children, in response to their requests for a poem on a topic they liked. I had created a business called Poetic Licence and apart from lots of work in schools (via three agents) I also worked at festivals as a roving performer (writing on the spot about anything suggested by those I accosted) at literacy camps, on tour along the Murray River, in country towns and suburbs in Victoria, at writers festivals for children, at Georges and David Jones for special occasions, and at private celebrations, and at schools and the fringe festival in the Kimberleys.
Family Tree by Bill Condon
Leave a commentFamily tree
The mother was a ghost gum,
a really terrific tree-mum.
The father was a noble oak,
a shining prince of tree-dom.
You’d think with a family tree like that,
the offshoot would have to be a winner.
Instead he was a toothpick,
who lived in fear of dinner.
Bill Condon
Bill says: I wrote this years ago when I was very silly. Nothing’s changed.
T for Tree by Virginia Lowe
Leave a commentT for Tree
Straight trunk
Typical tree
Outstretched arms
Thick canopy
Leaves trap the sun
brilliant green
Dark brown trunk
A child’s drawing
Burnished silver
Polished gum
Dead, but shining
in the morning sun
Froth of regrowth
at its roots
Towers a silver
toasting fork
Branches curve tortuous
weaving and gliding
starting way up
the tall straight trunk
the architecture
fully exposed.
Architecture exposed,
even living.
Dull eucalypt green
Narrow leaves
loosely bunched
hang down to escape
the sun’s rays
Trunk bright pink-gold
Burnished by
morning sun
Huge animals
that hopped
Egg-laying mammals
with duck bills
The first Europeans
couldn’t believe
their own eyes
Painted what
they longed to see
Dark trunk
outstretched branches
thick canopy
typical (Northern) tree
starting with T.
Virginia Lowe
Virginia says: I spent the first weeks of January in the mountains, Falls Creek (about 40 friends took over a ski lodge). Falls Creek was in the middle of a bushfire about 12 years ago, and is surrounded by bleached white dead trees – sad, but beautiful – and regrowing. I had several phrases in my mind, and the letter T sparked off contemplation about the comparison between Northern and Southern Hemisphere trees, and reactions to them. It is my usual blank verse, short lines, with some half rhymes thrown in.