the third hallucination

transgressive

(trænzgrɛsɪv )

 

ADJECTIVE

 

Transgressive is used to describe actions that break a moral law or a rule of behavior.

 

[formal]

To write and publish this poem was a daring, transgressive act.

 

COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary.

 

Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers 

the story of a tree

 

Once there was a tree, planted to commemorate the arrival of a new life to this world. And it grew and it grew.

It grew so big it went over the wall to the churchyard next door. Each year it blossomed. Then the rain poured down and the wind whipped a gale. The tree split. Its roots began to rise from the ground.

  

Poor tree. It had to come down before it fell. One man climbed up, higher and higher into the branches. Ropes were attached and the chain-saw ripped into life.

 

 

 

The team of men sweated in the blistering heat as they worked on. Branches were cut, slender boughs shredded.

They worked until the tree was down and the next day we lifted heavy trunk rings across the churchyard wall. The stump-grinder came . We dug out the roots and planted another tree.

The old wood will not be wasted. A young man came round to chop it into logs. It will keep us warm as we wait for the new tree to grow.

summer's almost gone

 

 

 a soft sun-lit shaft 

steals silent 

between the shimmered morning 

maidenhair 

moist in the fecund dreams

of a young girl 

 

a solitary tree

stands proud

chained to the floor of the wood

its verdant head

pulsing

with the risen sap

of one last summer morning

autumn beckons

wood

and the rain came

in soft shards

through leaves

as we walked

they waited patiently for us

the trees

talking

through roots

discarded and fallen

the green moss

glowing

on twisted bark

tracing the rippled

surface

death and life

cycle

permanence

impermanence 

the floor

of this magical

living

wood