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Oak tree in Frimley Park, Hastings, New Zealand. The
author looking glamorous to show scale.
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Ancient Trees
I In my garden I have planted ancient trees,
My bequest to posterity.
Kauri, Norfolk Pine and Monkey-puzzle,
Bunya Bunya, Dawn Redwood and Gingko,
But I will not live to see them grow.
As yet these are but tree dreams,
With a millennium ahead of them,
A dubious future
Perhaps inhospitable and bleak.
But in my dreams they streak
Ahead in beanstalk spurts
And forest giant strides.
I dream of Gondwanaland
Where Monkey-puzzle trees stand
Stark, and shark tooth leaved.
Their pangolin branched pagoda
A fractal nightmare
Against a turquoise sky.
I dream of Norfolk Island Pines,
Candelabras of geometric whorls,
With giant combs of leaves
Like the antennae of monstrous moths
Sifting the breeze in ancient forests
For pollen of their own kind.
I dream of kauri in a sunlit glade
With amber resin glowing,
Flowing down their flanks.
Giant dragonflies flit in filtered rays,
The sunlight of the elder days.
I dream of gingko waving pale green fins,
Distinctive cloven leaves unchanged
Since their imprint in fossil shales.
Gingko fruits stink with colours mute,
No rainbow hues for lorikeets,
For marmosets no allure sweet.
Their foetid smell drifts down time
To lure triceratops to dine.
I dream of the Redwood of the Dawn
There at the beginning in paradise,
There through interglacials,
There through eons of the ice.
Here in the evening of the world
With lacy foliage unfurled.
Here the broken link to mend
In my Eden garden at the end.
Short Biography of Arthur Bennett:
Born 61 years ago in Bredbury, Cheshire. Lived in New Zealand for 40 years
as teacher of English. Live on 15 acres of hillside in Hawkes Bay with
sundry dogs, donkeys, cattle and bald sheep. Have planted 100's of trees in
my lifetime. I am a prolific poet and in the opinion of some a very good
one. You might find my poetry under my alias Hanuman on Eliteskills.com. To
request my other nature poetry, please contact me at Shaman1@xtra.co.nz.
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