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    Poem 014

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    gufronf18
    The poet reflects on neglecting an apple tree on their property that eventually died. They brought the dead tree's wood inside to burn in their stove. Through this, they remember the scent of burning apples and regret not taking better care of the tree when it was alive by pruning dead limbs, providing water and nutrients, and giving it more attention instead of being distracted by other plants. The burning applewood is a reminder of the tree's past beauty and productivity, as well as a lesson for the poet to avoid neglecting plants in the future.

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    Poem 014

    Uploaded by

    gufronf18
    21 views2 pages
    The poet reflects on neglecting an apple tree on their property that eventually died. They brought the dead tree's wood inside to burn in their stove. Through this, they remember the scent of burning apples and regret not taking better care of the tree when it was alive by pruning dead limbs, providing water and nutrients, and giving it more attention instead of being distracted by other plants. The burning applewood is a reminder of the tree's past beauty and productivity, as well as a lesson for the poet to avoid neglecting plants in the future.

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    Poem 014

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    The poet reflects on neglecting an apple tree on their property that eventually died. They brought the dead tree's wood inside to burn in their stove. Through this, they remember the scent of burning apples and regret not taking better care of the tree when it was alive by pruning dead limbs, providing water and nutrients, and giving it more attention instead of being distracted by other plants. The burning applewood is a reminder of the tree's past beauty and productivity, as well as a lesson for the poet to avoid neglecting plants in the future.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    21 views2 pages

    Poem 014

    Uploaded by

    gufronf18
    The poet reflects on neglecting an apple tree on their property that eventually died. They brought the dead tree's wood inside to burn in their stove. Through this, they remember the scent of burning apples and regret not taking better care of the tree when it was alive by pruning dead limbs, providing water and nutrients, and giving it more attention instead of being distracted by other plants. The burning applewood is a reminder of the tree's past beauty and productivity, as well as a lesson for the poet to avoid neglecting plants in the future.

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    Poem 014: Neglect

    Is the scent of apple boughs smoking

    in the woodstove what I will remember

    of the Red Delicious I brought down, ashamed

    that I could not convince its limbs to render fruit?

    Too much neglect will do that, skew the sap's

    passage, blacken leaves, dry the bark and heart.

    I should have lopped the dead limbs early

    and watched each branch with a goshawk's eye,

    patching with medicinal pitch, offering water,

    compost and mulch, but I was too enchanted

    by pear saplings, flowers and the pasture,

    too callow to believe that death's inevitable

    for any living being unloved, untended.

    What remains is this armload of applewood

    now feeding the stove's smolder. Splendor

    ripens a final time in the firebox, a scarlet

    harvest headed, by dawn, to embers.

    Two decades of shade and blossoms—tarts

    and cider, bees dazzled by the pollen,

    spare elegance in ice—but what goes is gone.

    Smoke is all, through this lesson in winter

    regret, I've been given to remember.

    Smoke, and Red Delicious apples redder


    than a passing cardinal's crest or cinders.

    —R. T. Smith

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