Bardic poems inspired by Trees, Woods and Forests. Listed alphabetically by poet’s first name. If you have poems you’d like to share with us to help promote our work with the Spirits of the Trees, please post them (or links to them) in a comment to the most recent item on our News page or on our Facebook page. Thank you 🙂
The cards appearing on this page are from A Druid Ogham Oracle, by Steve Rumelhart and Greywolf.
Derry Rose
Autumn Roots. Photo by Greywolf.
Dead Tree
Dead tree – stark in dark dignity.
Your spirit hovers in still contemplation,
Watching as the seasons come and go,
Remaining, awaiting the Goddess’s pleasure.
Slow, silent death, painless and purposeful.
Life drains in years from your nurturing arms,
Reminding bud and sapling of mortality
Proud in naked memory of past splendours.
Days when you were young and steeped in beauty;
Blossom scattering in carpets in the Spring breeze.
A canopy of shade amongst your kindred;
Waving to the sky in limes and silvers
And golds and coppers when the sun was mellow.
How you loved the colours and the changes.
Hoar frost white against the night sky –
Your spirit sighs and murmurs to the Goddess.
Liv Torc, from the book, Poetree: Poems from the Ogham, by Liv Torc, Honorary Bard of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids. Visit the website, http://www.hipyakpoetryshack.co.uk/
B
I am Birch
The first, the beginning
The gentle grace of dawn
On blackened soil
In stagnant air
I’ll turn the ashen fair
And give the Goddess back
Her gleaming hair
Fast, fleet, starlight sweet
Shooting silver bright,
Through light and life
A pioneer of knowing
With swift foresight
A dancer who twirls
The sun, sky and earth
Teaching us the value of living
And the joy in death and rebirth.
Alder
Travel down to the river
To the King of the Water
Gnarled old shelter from the storm
You can watch your future
Roll in on the current
Then sail out on its journey to the sea
But before you go
Why not shelter in my roots
For my shadows conceal many charms
Remember you are safe here
For it is not just fish
But also time I can hide in my arms.
So rest weary traveller
Let me shield your life
Shine a light on your destiny
For there is courage, protection
Amd confidence to be found
In the blood and the roots
And the waters
Of the gnarled old Alder tree.
Oak
Mighty is the Oak
The Prince of Light
Lord of perfect knowledge
King of the Celtic land
Once an acorn
With the potential of the world
Small enough to hide
Inside your hand.
Noble is the Oak
The sacred Druid tree
The Guardian of the North
A living channel of Divinity
Offering shelter
And protection
For the warrior who has fallen
For ever in silence
The Oak will hear your call
Take his strength
He will catch you
You will live through this
You will endure.
Philip Shallcrass (a.k.a. Greywolf), from the book, The Remembering Soul
Silver Birch
From the wet earth that feeds your roots,
the red and white of fly agaric rises,
Woden’s fruits of year’s fall,
gifted to the bear clan,
warriors of wod,
fruit of the birch,
maiden, guardian,
golden leaved in autumn,
golden green in spring,
swaying with the wind,
your leaves sparkle in the sun
and in the eyes of the priestess
who watches,
weaving words.
Winter Birch
A birch tree in winter,
stripped of her leaves,
stands naked to the world.
Tenacious roots hold her
to the black earth,
even as her thin
and fibrous branches
haunt the air
with echoes
of the coming spring.