Trees have a way
of teaching us the deepest things.
Seasonally, quietly, they demonstrate their truths.
You must endure,
(trees say) bow down, give way, accept
when from the North ice-laden winds oppress.
You must release
what you with year-long love watched slowly grow,
when at the summer's end green leaves turn sere.
The darkest times
these are, watching your hope's fulfilment drift away,
when all the best you strove for, you renounce.
- But then, trees say,
think of that rare delight when buds, in Spring, define
on desiccated boughs their glory once again.
April O'Leary RSCJ (1968)
April died in February 2013 aged 90. RIP
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