When I was aloved

                        of a willow–

                        Languidly she

            would lean her nimble limbs to me.

                        And beckon her green branches down,

To hither me upward

                        from my place on the ground.

            She would gesture her leaves

                        to on high;

And point to a place

            in the deep of blue sky,

While promising heaven

            and laughing, glad-hearted in the breeze.

                        What knew I

                                    of the folly

                                                imparted by willow trees?

            I reached to her freely–

                        as innocent as air.

And clung, till she swung me

                                                far away from her there.

 

                                                            The sky nor heaven did I find

                                                            While in the course of flight;

                                                            Nor when I was so inclined

                                                            As to the earth return–

                                                                        Where willow voiced her faint concern,

                                                                        But laughed, in the wind, resigned.

                                                                        And laughed till the fall of night.

                                                                                               

                                                                                                           

Fall 1991