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.
November 19th, 2019 at 9:33 am
Oh
Ain't it lonely
livin' all the time
Tommy James and the Shondells, "Evergreen" – Ritchie Cordell/Tommy James "Cellophane Symphony" (1969)
November 19th, 2019 at 10:03 am
loves me
loves me not
shredded daisies ?
November 19th, 2019 at 10:50 am
.
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
November 19th, 2019 at 12:22 pm
I love this.And all those long syllables suit the emotion and meaning perfectly.
me and
the tree
heartwood
November 20th, 2019 at 1:29 pm
of what use long life
the blood of all my kinfolk
dried winters ago
November 21st, 2019 at 7:39 am
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?