David Beatty Photography

Trees

I am looking at trees

they may be one of the things I will miss 

most from the earth

though many of the ones that I have seen

already I cannot remember

and though I seldom embrace the ones I see

and have never been able to speak

with one

I listen to them tenderly

their names have never touched them

they have stood round my sleep

and when it was forbidden to climb them

they have carried me in their branches.

W.S. Merwin