Sequoia lovers: a villanelle

Sequoia lovers: a villanelle

As lovers to each other these two trees are drawn

And reach upward to infinity’s meeting place,

While woven roots entwined, resist the storm.

As lovers whose hearts, one to one, are drawn

Through all eternity, their limbs embrace

And succour and support flow, one to one;

Entwined, their woven roots resist the storm.

Rock disallows a tap root down to brace,

Yet fingers, weaving outwards, shall not be torn.

As lovers to each other, day, night and dawn

Inseparable, these two their spirits do co-enlace

And in each other’s strength, each is relied upon,

With woven roots that cannot be undone,

And as ages pass their twoness they misplace

As into each other eternally they are grown.

So may it be, with lovers, cross all space

That they should strengthen each with endless grace,

Lean into each other, as lovers, tightly drawn,

Enmesh their base, and so resist the storm.

©Tina Shettigara 2014

https://www.hikespeak.com/trails/north-grove-calaveras-big-trees-state-park-hike/

Giant Sequoia have a shallow matted root system and no tap root. For such a massive tree it looks odd to find them so commonly growing very close together, however this is advantageous to them as by entwining their roots they give each other stability. I love big trees and always feel quite moved by them.  They are ancient giants, and this "twinning" seemed to me to be totally romantic.

This poem arose to honour the wedding of my eldest daughter. It is therefore dedicated to Chaitanya and Dan.

Day after the seige

Day after the siege

Day after the siege

eyes met, embraces shared.

Connected oneness.

Day after the siege.

When senselessness looms

We all reach out to connect

Day after the siege

We affirm this is not us

We connect, are one.

Tina Shettigara December 17 2014

For breasts

For breasts

A blessing in the style of John O'Donohue

We are grateful for breasts.

For breasts which nurtured us

Over whose gracious curve

Is the joining with the mother gaze

Not separate, we are grateful.

For the soft breasts of grandmother’s hugs

That heal a grazed knee

We are grateful.

For pimple breasts

Hidden by folded arms and hunched shoulders

Heralding impending womanhood,

For the blossoming of girl into woman;

And for breasts that are caressed within their first bra,

Suddenly shapely,

We are grateful.

We are grateful

For breasts, pressed in hugs from

mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, girlfriends and lovers.

For breasts ripened into glowing fruit,

And breasts which are pressed, caressed in passion

We are grateful.

We are grateful for breasts which give suckle to our babes.

We are grateful.

And yet when breasts must sacrifice to prolong our

Time with the beloved ones,

We are grateful,

Knowing

we

are

not

those

breasts.

In all these changes,

Bound by time and space

we are not this.

Yet we are grateful

For love and life.

©Tina Shettigara

Ambogio Begognone "Madonna Lactans" c1485: Accademia Carrara, Bergamo