Jo Pacsoo
Haibun: Birthday
We arrive at the small village of Staverton, follow the signs to the church and there it is !
Huge girth split
limbs turn and twist
still it grows!
This yew tree is, by a conservative estimate, 1500 years old. It has lived through storm and sun, war, plague and eras of human history from the 500’s. Cracked fragments point skywards and the centre is hollow but above is a canopy of green.
I sit within
the broken trunk awed by ages
of enduring life.
I’m aroused by the whistle and chug of a train and rejoin my friend. We discover that Staverton is a station on the South Devon Steam Railway. On the platform my friend reminiscences with volunteers about the days of British Rail while I wait in the sun .
A seat beside
old cider casks wren
hops round my feet.
Ancient tree, tiny
bird - celebration of
sixty years.
Page(s) 36
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