Tree sensibility
The last two years have been difficult for us all. We’ve made big sacrifices, and many have lost friends and family members.
As we mark two years since the first lockdown, and remember those we’ve lost, I encourage everyone to listen to this powerful poem by @iforapglyn pic.twitter.com/bdRPCZpLEx
— Mark Drakeford (@PrifWeinidog) March 23, 2022
What are our lives, but showers of leaves?
And last year an autumn, grindingly long…
Today, sharp sunlight
of not-quite-spring
bleaches birch skeletons
against a sky painfully blue.
And we come here,
trampling the triggers of fallen twigs…
then, we grow still,
as we breathe with the trees…
A leaf will fall;
twisting and flaunting;
we join its orbits gently,
swimming in memories.
We can be made whole
here, in this ‘thin place’,
between clay-bound roots and wind-bound boughs,
between body and soul…
And the oaks will soon
sail on their seasons,
unfurling their glory
through churches of green,
sieving the sun
into the shadows below,
and our grief will wear new colours,
as it must…
Ifor ap Glyn
Bardd Cenedlaethol Cymru / National Poet of Wales
(23.3.21 – It was announced that two commemorative woodlands would be planted in memory of those lost to COVID in Wales.)