Tree, and Stars, by Mike Dillon

The Lawrence Tree, by Georgia O’Keeffe (USA) 1929

Tree, and Stars
 
I am trying to understand
the fact of this ponderosa pine
on earth.
 
Its bark by night
is chill to touch,
its canopy massed darkness.
 
I cannot understand
the stars haloing this pine,
not really,
 
their light sent
unfathomable years ago.
Deep rooted tree,
 
unfathomable stars --
productions of time and eternity. 
And something we can’t name.
 
Here, touch the bark. And look up.
By your silence I will know
you know you don’t understand.
 
Mike Dillon
 
Mike Dillon lives in Indianola, Washington, a small town on Puget Sound northwest of Seattle. He is the author of four books of poetry and three books of haiku. Several of his haiku were included in Haiku in English: The First Hundred Years, from W.W. Norton (2013). His most recent book, Departures: Poetry and Prose on the Removal of Bainbridge Island’s Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor, was published by Unsolicited Press in April 2019.