Viriditas VII

Along suburban roads

Outside of this place of peace,

branches are cut back

to make way for roads and wires.

The tree shapes are determined

not by what they are

but what surrounding busy-ness

has pressured them to be.

But here in open space

each planted tree spreads up and out

freely, rooted in one place

spreading deep beneath the soil,

growing out into the shape

that she was meant to be.

Here in open space

I recognize their names

In distinctive silhouettes:

Pin oak, maple, sycamore.

Let me be

like such a tree

Planted into spaciousness

growing up into the shape

that I was meant to be.

​from Viriditas:  New and Selected Poems (2003), by Kathleen Henderson Staudt