Once Upon A Time

This week I’d like to share two poems with you. They don’t have much in common except that they are short. I wrote the first one thinking about how powerful other people’s stories have been in my own life:

Once Upon A Time

“Once upon a time”
It starts
And right away
We know for sure
No story is
Repeatable
Just once, it comes
And bound to time
Each one unique
And yet when I’m
Looking into
These other lives
Somehow
I see my own

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The second poem is based on a comment someone made on the blog a long time ago. They thought I would be interested to know that most of the mass of trees actually comes from carbon in the air, not from the soil. And that really is interesting, isn’t it? It stuck with me, and eventually came out in this poem:

A Tree

The trunk of a tree
Is (most of it) carbon
And the way that it grows
Is somewhat alarming
It isn’t pulled up
From its roots in the ground
(Though it does need the
Water and soil around)
No, the carbon comes in
Through the leaves
With the light
Which is odd—if you
Guessed it, I think that I might
Not believe you
But it’s true
It comes from the air
The invisible stuff—
Just like nothing is there
But carbon is there
And added to sunlight
And soil and water
It grows to a great height
And shelters the birds
And gives shade to the people
Who breathe in the air
And maybe don’t care
That the air they are breathing
Is filled up with life