Friday Poetry: Chrissie Gittins

Happy Friday Everyone!

I hope everyone has had a good week and is looking forward to the weekend.

My chosen poem this week is by the award-winning poet Chrissie Gittins.

The Unseen Life of Trees

When the fraying skeins of silver birch
sway in the wind they think of 
lulling water in the floating harbour.

the dried out plants on a deck,
the bespoke barge door cut to close
on a trapezium.

A sparse beech globe of yellow
holds an afternoon with two young friends,
who will walk through their vivid lives

beyond the end of mine.
A ball of mistletoe hangs
way up in spindle branches balancing

a trowel, a ginger cake,
and a framed copy of Jessop's 1802
'Design for Improving the Harbour of Bristol'.

Umber banks of oak climb the hillside
dragging children by the hand. 
'There will be time,' they whisper,

canopy to canopy.
'There will be time, before
all our leaves stretch out across the frosted ground.'

Chrissie Gittins

Happy Reading