.
Where’s your dance, old tree?
The music blows,
let’s see you sway,
I long to hear
your rustling green.
Did winter tighten up your knots
and sap your limbs so soon?
What’s this?
It seems Pan left you
tail tucked between his legs
when he saw the horizon
turning black
instead of blue.
And now I too
must hurry off
to find my cave and pray
that the dawn
will turn our mourning
into day.
.
(c) 1980, 2014 Betty Hayes Albright
.
.Written in March, 1980 – two months before Mt. St. Helens erupted, on May 18th. A premonition, perhaps….
57 people were killed, including my close friend Barbara Pierce Seibold.
Seasonings 
Enjoyed this 🙂
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Thank you!
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Ah..like great bears we will emerge from the caves…ready to relish life…enjoyed your poem.
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Thanks Charlie – glad you enjoyed it. (After 34 years, life is gradually returning to some areas around the mountain – wildflowers, young trees, etc. But I’m afraid those caves are buried thousands of feet under….)
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I like your words … I read today that magma is forming under its dome again …
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That is true, Peter… the volcano seems to toss and turn in her sleep now and then – only to go back to sleep. Hopefully she doesn’t waken in a rage again. (Seems that the new forming magma would help to release internal pressure – which is a good sign.)
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Lovely poetry, Betty–I’m so sorry for the loss of your friend.
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Thank you! (I always get a bit pensive this time of year…. It seems weird, Barb and I were 33 at the time of the eruption, which was our whole lifetime. And now another 34 years have passed so quickly…. It doesn’t seem that long ago.)
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Anniversaries are tough, I know–and the passage of time, well that’s so much a mystery, isn’t it.
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Finding new spaces I see. And well worth it.
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Thank you, Ben. Yes, a few spaces here and there – trying to make time stand still. 🙂
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Good luck with *that* one. 😉
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Beautifully written Betty and so sorry for the loss of your friend. I don’t think time ever heals, I think we simply learn to manage it all a little more easily as time passes.
Sending love and hugs and hope things aren’t too chaotic at the moment 😊 xx
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Betty, wonderful, absolutely, wonderful.
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Tsizzles, thank you so much!
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Your poetry is always so obviously rooted in the soul, Betty. And so it continues to be rooted in each of us… and in mother Earth. Beautiful, as always. 🙂
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I am behind, as usual, Betty. I hope you are feeling well. Pan does disappear when the sun is not shining. And perhaps we should all mourn and find the cave of ourselves when Pan has chosen to not pipe flowers and dance into the world. I always appreciate your poetry so much. I always want to think of you sitting down and writing.
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This poem is wonderful. As ever it looks so effortless and spontaneous and natural with great poise, mixing faint hints of humour with faint hints of sadness that makes it so human and so dignified. I don’t know how much time you spend writing poetry but it’s not enough.
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Thank you for such a generous, thoughtful comment! That was a poem from 1980 when my muse was always on call. The last few years I haven’t spent as much time writing, (lack of energy) though poetry is still one of my passions. Thank you again for the compliment!
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You are most welcome!
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