NovPAD 2024 • 13, 14

Trees • Secret Places

This month’s theme: “Where I Am: Poems of Place”

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11/13 • Trees

This is a rondeau: A and B end-rhymes with 4 words repeated as the refrain. I’ve used an 8-syllable line length to give it structure.

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Grief grows over time by degrees
like an oak, slow and strong. The tree
calls for tending when small, tender 
roots curling down to meander
around obstacles. Unforeseen
 
growth shoots the sapling tall and lean
in spring and this is when it needs
water most. It is still slender.
Grief grows over time
so pay it heed while it’s still green.
In a while it will be unseen
most days. Until autumn’s splendor
breaks your back with raking. Mature
trees are heavier than they seem
and grief grows over time.

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11/14 • Secret Places

For today, I didn't want to say too much about my secret places, because there's something wonderful about being told part of a secret with mystery left over. I have history in these vignettes, but because none of you share that history, I wanted to make room for you to enter them from your own perspectives. Haiku is a natural fit – in this case a haiku sonnet. Just 14 brief lines, from my earliest to latest youthful secret places.

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long evening—
evergreen branches
surround me


          slate sky—
          through the lattice
          a sparrow


                    early lights—
                    spider jumping
                    beneath stairs


          bright leaves—
          concealed within
          their source


tang of cut grass—
grandpa’s garage

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Photo by Jesse Gardner on Unsplash