The Mystic Kiss

Tree's Company.

I gave my promise to the Elm
that great and mighty tree.
That I would preserve him from all harm -
if first he would aid me.
I'll save you from the axe, I said,
from saw or blight or fire.
If in return you will give me strength -
for I know you never tire.
I'll bear my fate, he did reply,
and ask no aid of thee.
But I will share my strength with you -
if you'll share yours with me.
I knew he had powers beyond my ken
and wisdom old and deep.
If I could just awaken them -
for I sensed he was half-asleep.
What, I asked, could I offer you,
that you do not yet possess?
For however little you give me -
I'm sure I have but less.
Can't you walk and talk, he said,
and laugh and dance and shout?
While I can merely shake my boughs
and never walk about.
Filled with feathered friends sometime -
blessed with song and wing.
Yet rooted to the earth am I -
and not allowed to sing.
All may visit when they wish
and leave when they want to go.
Yet I can't see them when I like -
do you say it isn't so?
I felt his plight within me then -
His need to walk and see.
To be like other creatures -
to explore and to be free.
So I agreed to share with him -
to merge and be as one.
I spread my arms around his girth
and the 'I' I'd known was gone.
For He did shrink and I did grow -
till I was great and tall.
And hugged around me far below -
a creature, oh, so small.
As the creature loosed its grip -
I realised it was me.
That now indeed we were truly one -
man and mighty tree.
I saw myself then, tall and great,
dressed in my leaf green suit.
Felt the power that rippled through
every branch and root.
I sensed the presence of the birds
and saw them with human eyes.
And marvelled at the variety
of life beneath the skies.
Yet I felt a loneliness
that never could be filled,
A yearning to find love and joy -
that never could be stilled.
To my surprise I realised -
that this was not the tree.
The need I sensed came not from him -
it came instead from me.

Looking then into my heart -
I realised the mighty part.
That Man could play to make the Earth,
a world of love, of joy and mirth.
A Land where sunshine cured all ills,
with crystal streams and rolling hills
A land where all could share the bliss,
the ecstasy of the Mystic Kiss.

Knowing this I understood
that ne'er again could I leave the wood.
Sadness and yet gladness
were united then in that leafy glen.

All at once I found myself
again beneath that tree.
Knowing I must leave at once
or ne'er again be free.
But when I left
behind me there
I left some part of me.
Yet deep within me,
still there lies...
a part of that mighty tree.