The Trees by Philip Larkin

It’s easy to forget sometimes that however old we are, we still have the capacity to grow. This poem is a reminder that it’s never too late to bud, bloom and flourish; that winter only lasts as long as we allow it to.

Larkin expresses the wonder of that extraordinary potential for change. It’s the feeling we recognize in the seemingly barren bush as it edges its way toward budding.

We know, intuitively and intensely, that transformation is on its way. In a matter of weeks, that bush will be all but unrecognizable. It will be fully alive again.

The Trees

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.

Write Your Medicine Prompt:

To start, choose an image that catches your attention, evokes a rumbling of emotion. You may know why, maybe not. Sometimes it is writing itself that will help you see why that image resonates.

It can be an image in your imagination, a pic from your cell phone, or a random picture from a magazine.

The idea is to explore, in poetry, how this image makes you feel. Often the image that comes to mind or captures your attention is speaking to you, represents a part of you that wants to be expressed. In this context, writing is the deepest form of listening. 

Here is my image:

Here is my poem:

Like the wave
A memory of a dream
Swimming the depths
Surrounded with whales
I am afraid
I feel free

What is your image and poem?