Snowfall Treefall

Something I’ve learned throughout adulthood – that no one ever really told me as a child – is that grief is an ever-present force in life. We lose parts of ourselves, our lives, our environment, and our Hearts on a regular, rotating basis.
Some of these losses can be so tremendous that they make the others feel rather trivial. But, no matter the impact, they all have a precious and rightful place in the chaotic course of our lives.

Today, I reflect on the loss of a mighty tree – whose branches served as an owl perch, squirrel playground, songbird stage, climbing challenge, play fort, and occasional fire starter. After countless seasons of a sturdy stronghold, the least I can do is pay tribute to her reign with my words.

---

I lost a Tree today
A lady Locust
Matriarch of urban lawn
forced to submission
folded from the weight
…of a gentle snowfall

I cried
she crumbled
piece by piece
cut by cut
her might and magnitude
reduced, replaced
with splits and shavings

the lawn lay open
ripped and wrangled
from her bending
breaking
at the roots

my Heart
awash with loss
shocked in the silence
of a vacant window’s view

And then,
tonight
I sat
in frost-filled fractures
of her absence
while the full Moon
buried her remains
eclipsed her roots
with sacred shine

guiding my gaze
skyward to see

deep panoramic blue
horizon cross horizon
unobstructed gap
opened up
to cosmic grandeur
Moon’s rippled rings
over endless backdrop
of celestial mist
all we are
a heavenly display
of vast possibilities
infinite complexities
of stardust and chaos

cold met my eyes
welled up with awe
in that lunar light

my view
never looked
so good
my Heart
never healed
so quick
and there
at her roots
I learned

devastating loss
makes way
for monumental space
to observe
to revere
to respect
to reciprocate
to give birth
to another form
shaped by
fragments and figments
of waking pain

I lost a Tree today
and
in return
I got
…the Universe