Oak tree
You are brooding
Exponentially grand and simply looming
At the edge of the yard that lines my childhood home
Fading into the tree-tinted horizon
One with the picture in which you paint
You
Are not a focal point
You are more like a subtle brush stroke easing its way into the foreground
But you don't mind
Oak tree
You are patience
A hundred years have touched your membrane
Stiffening and caking it in
The wrinkles of an old man's skin
Somehow still soft
Somehow still able
To reach into your moss-covered heart
Nestled neatly within your wood
And find the bravery to reach out
With winding branches
Providing the birds a place to nest
The squirrels a home to burrow and
The termites a space to feed
The worms make playgrounds of your roots
Oak tree
You have no eyes
But I know a small part of what you've seen
The burst of spring in the warmth of slanted sunshine
And the near suffocating scent of
Blossoms, seeds, and
Sweet struggling saplings
Life
Death
The stifling absence of birdsong
And presence of snow
Crumbling leaves
Rotting trees
Ice sleek to the touch and the barren shadow
Of being alone
Oak tree
Through all of this
You grow
In pursuit of the sky
You live with the will the pulsates straight up through your roots
And radiates to the end of every one of your golden branches
Oak tree
I can only hope to pick up a fragment of the wisdom you emit
As I ponder your existence
In the shade your glorious leaves provide

Does it make you sad that when you blow
You push everything away from you?
Or does it make you frustrated that you don't know why you keep doing it.
You get angry and howl, you don't know your own strength
And you blow down trees.
But people don't see that you can be gentile
And guide kites through the extensive window to the heavens.
You can be a jolly old man whistling in the park
Playing with the birds
Or
You can do everything
Because you're everywhere.

Smudges in the sky
Swirling across my fingers
Gateways to heaven

Attached by a thread
Clinging onto their mother
Last years leaves must leave

Snow seeping softly
Dissolving to a rhythm
Returning to spring

They begin to bloom
Open pedals to the sun
Perfume fills the air

The fluttering breeze
Gently begs the trees to dance
Smells of sweet blossoms

Happiness is a banana
Peeled back by words
That enlighten your soul
Bright and colorful
That can be so easily broken
Yet last a long time
Until it turns brown
But if you enjoy it in time
It will taste delicious

Somberness is a black pen
Writing words of despair

Somberness is a black cloud
In a sea of blue

Somberness is an ice cream cone
Left abandoned on the sidewalk

Happiness is a black pen
Illustrating words of encouragement

Happiness is a black cloud
Bringing rain to thirsty crops

Happiness is an ice cream come
Shared by a mother and child

Empathy is like a gray tulip
With its beauty preserved and dried
Careful, don't think
For the petals will fall
And the beauty will be lost
On the ground