Pete Crowther (Hull, East Yorkshire, England)

O wise and patient apple tree
Stirred by the wind from across the sea
Your branches shake unceasingly.

On sunny days your shining leaves
Give welcome shade and sanctuary
To cheerful sparrows, starlings, wrens,
Bright-eyed blackbirds, collared doves;
To all you are a place of rest
And peace, but seasons pass, leaves fall,

Then come the snows of winter when
Bare-boughed you slumber until spring
And every heart uplifts to see
Such beauty in a living tree.
In autumn when your apples thud
Upon the ground, we share them equally

With blackbird, thrush and butterfly
For you are generous in your gifts.
Like us one day you’ll surely die
Yet unlike us you do not fret
About tomorrow, you take each day
Just as it comes and simply be.

So teach us wisdom apple tree
Whose branches shake unceasingly
Stirred by the wind from across the sea.