outlasting
everyone she loved –
heartwood

Published by

Roland Packer

Roland lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. For over 40 years he has worked as a professional musician in various roles; performer, teacher and composer. He has been writing haiku since the early 80s and has authored a mini-chapbook,"Wayfarers" (Phafours Press, 2017) and a full-length collection, "no heroic measures" (Red Moon Press, 2024).

6 thoughts on “”

  1. Oh
    Ain't it lonely
    livin' all the time
    Tommy James and the Shondells, "Evergreen" – Ritchie Cordell/Tommy James "Cellophane Symphony" (1969)

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  3. .

    outlasting
    everyone she loved –
    heartwood

    —ROLAND PACKER

    What must it feel, if a human, to have outlived, in your 'circle' everyone whom you've loved?
    I like how it could be a tree, or what is left of one tree, while others have been cut down, possibly just for pasture land and/or housing (probably for employees, not a community).

    HEARTWOOD
    Heartwood, also called duramen, dead, central wood of trees. Its cells usually contain tannins or other substances that make it dark in colour and sometimes aromatic. Heartwood is mechanically strong, resistant to decay, and less easily penetrated by wood-preservative chemicals than other types of wood. One or more layers of living and functional sapwood cells are periodically converted to heartwood.
    STUB WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

    That last line changes and expands the first two lines, and keeps expanding. Glorious, and sad, at the same time.

    Alan

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  6. A lovely and poignant haiku and so real. As Alan has said, what must it be like to be the last one of all you've ever known?

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