My Shadow Tree Poem by Richard D Remler

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I've climbed my world of trees today,
Before they had to go their way,
Before the sunlight met the sea,
Each tree I saw called out to me.

The green green tree with boughs of steel
Was pure and utterly ideal.
And I climbed quick as a whippoorwill
Springing from the window seal.

And then the tall tree called my name,
The one with pepper blossoms high,
And since no two trees are the same
I followed this one to the sky.

Up through branches bathed in light,
And down through tunnels in the bark,
I climbed this one with all my might,
Through the gray and winding dark.

Until I found my afternoon
Still waiting for me like the day.
I gave the tree a bit of heart
And watched it as it sailed away.

And there, beyond the Tin Tin Tree,
Where apple roses blossomed grand,
I noticed resting on its knee
The finest tree to ever stand.

A hundred, hundred trees in one,
Would be an awful lot of fun
Just to take a branch today
And rest the afternoon away,

But, Oh, I had to climb it high,
As high as God could make a sky.
I had to see the stars that He
With clever skill hid well from me.

I had to touch the setting sun,
Under my after-evening's shroud,
So up I went, through branches, bows,
Crossing leaves that laughed aloud.

Leaves that seemed to know my name,
That weaved their winding whispers through
A starlit flicker of a flame
I tried but could not look into.

I swung from branches tapped by age,
That creaked and echoed such a sigh-
The feathered leaves rustled calm,
And I so briefly saw my sky.

And finally spent I caught my breath,
And peeled the spindly leaves away,
And waved my arms into the breeze
That sang the silvered songs of day.

There was a different world below,
A land of hills and river beds,
Of trees as tiny as the grass,
And roads small as the finest threads.

I reached out into the velvet sky
To run my fingers through the day,
Where the sandy silk of autumn brushed
The stardust morning tossed my way.

And I breathed in all the wonder there -
All I could hear and feel and see,
Whatever wonder dared to share
From the branches of my Shadow Tree.


Copyright © MMXIII Richard D. Remler


**A Children's Tale**