salix nigra-black willow or swamp willow

salix nigra~black willow or swamp willow


black willow, ensconce me in your healing
i know your magical charms too well
we grew you up from tender sapling
on the west side of the stream

you said it was OK to hang
a tire swing from your lower bough
when you were only twelve years old

you insisted that we have our fire ceremony
seven of us, in a circle, around a raging fire
very near your toes, a place where tiny offshoots

with feathered green fronds would sometimes
catch on to all the fiery wonder, igniting
little green fronds, as audition for more fires

to come around you lovely black willow
you dance when noone is looking;
you mind the stream--
sometimes become part of a woven basket,
your roots a tonic for weak tummies

oh black willow, how i love your graceful dance
how you teach us without doing anything
oh black willow, i salute thee with this song

take it into the center of your trunk
and know, no trees are by chance, cheering;
there has to be a simple correspondence
prior to a true meeting

then in a split wood second, along with tall grasses,
butterflies, dragonflies, squirrels, deer, frog,
and minnows racing downstream-

we are all apart of the jagged circle;
made smooth by an agreed dance
of acceptance,

traveling
encircling
the globe--
made tinier
from closeness settling-

as green fronds float
downstream, parallel
to the minnows racing




Kate Lamberg
7/13/11