Village in the Tree - Compendium

 Those of you who have been enjoying the Village in the Tree may wish to have the whole saga in one document - with illustrations no less!

Feel free to download via this link (for your private enjoyment only, commercial rights reserved).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4kvbh8hqpjt2b6q/VIT%20Blog%20Version.pdf?dl=0

The Village in the Tree #10 - Epilogue

A tree within a forest fell

None survived to note it well

If your tree should start to fall

Will anyone survive at all

Survive to tell what fantasy

Destroyed your Village in a Tree

Final Coordinates

The relationship of constant T
And the axes xyz
Require me to think
Fourth dimen-sion-ally

In my case, when constant T
Was less than 1963

I had not yet come to be
There simply was no me

T alone possesses
Linearity
As it grows predictably
Toward infinity

Sometime long before
It reaches such a score
The xyz describing me
Will be naught once more

I hope I can control
The growth of x and z
And thereby my total mass
Measured at max (T)

And like everyone before
And all that after come
I wonder what val (T) will be
When xyz are none

But I can be grateful
For the one who keeps the score
Of xyz over T
That we may live once more

The Sot

On a bus I met one day

A drunken sot who dared to say

That my case and suit and tie

Was offensive to his eye

He mumbled out profanities

He spat and spluttered

Coughed and wheezed

As though to ride upon a bus

Was purely for the drinking class

As he muttered and he swore

Offended by the things I wore

The folly of his case was plain

All his funds went down the drain

And who's to say and who can know

How quickly could the Sot's funds grow

If to booze he did not choose

But spent his money on clean trews.

The Village in the Tree #9 - Gratification

Contrary to the expectation

Of all gathered there

The Village in the Tree

Descended through the air

Tumbling most gracefully

The Village in the Tree

Was briefly Village in the Sky

But lacking competence to fly

Became the Village on the Ground

Devastated all around

By good fortune I had grasped

The final leaf as it fluttered past

The final view will stay with me

The face of mute disbelief

As the Philosoph' observed my leaf

Then fell toward infinity

Yet I am sure that while he fell

He assured himself that all was well

Reality, though defective

Would at the end be self-corrective

Would align canonically

With most Royal Philosophy

These musings, though most comforting

Reprieve of sentence could not bring

Realisation - out of time

Marked the end of a paradigm

Sans L'homme

Go where man has laid his dead
With measured reverential tread
And find not death but life instead

Go where man has ceased to talk
Go where man but seldom walks
In the company of trees
Donating now their fallen leaves
Where birds may sing their crystal song
Sheltered in a world sans l'homme

Go where man has laid his dead
With measured reverential tread
And find not death but life instead

Fence

I chanced upon a timid group
Of ramblers free to roam
They stood before a broken fence
Eager to get home
They hailed a local ancient
Requesting sage direction
Here you find their discourse
Recorded sans correction

Good man we hear a noise beyond
The fences and the trees
Would it be safe to proceed
Tell us if you please ...

We thought we heard a bovine voice
We thought we heard the duck
Perhaps a pig or two we heard
Or poultry run amok

Nah them baint be grunts or moos
Them baint be clucks or baas
Them baint be caws
Or creaking doors
I tell you that becaas ...

Enough of you old yokel!
Said the leader of the group
We have not time for this rhyme
He turned toward the troupe
I say we press on here and now
And through the gap they leapt
Unaware of what was there
That in the darkness slept

Meanwhile the yokel all alone
Shook his ancient head
Stroked his chin and breathing in
This is what he said ...

Them baint be grunts or moos
Them baint be clucks or baas
Them baint be caws
Or creaking doors
I tell you that becaas ...

Them be roars and spiky jaws
An' yon Safari Park
'Taint the place for city folk
To be walkin' after dark

The Village in the Tree #8 - Anticipation

The villagers were gathered yet

Their robust outburst of assent

Still hanging in the air

A tremor stiffened every hair

The village creaked

The village swayed

Like a fiddle poorly played

The villagers rushed to see

The cause of instability

"Feel the tugging of the sun

See its grasping rays

How wondrous is the Cosmos

In all its knowing ways"

Assured the Royal Philosoph'

And took his hat and glasses off

(Earlier he'd put them on)

The villagers implored the sun

To complete their levitation

But the village and the tree

Hastened its gyration

A distant roar of splintering

Warned of separation

Now heroic products

Of Master Engineers

On each other gnashed

'Twas painful to the ears

Meeting in the middle

Where once there had been trunk

Nothing more was heard

Than an awful "thunk"

Patience

I look as I sit
At a radiator valve
And the pipe that's connected to it
At the cold water feed
With a valve that is red
And the shower that is fed
As water flows through it
And the waste from the bath
Through a two-inch tube
Runs next to the hot water feed
And the rad' on the wall
Is two feet tall
But it's warm so there isn't a need
The taps and the shower are closed
Through the waste nothing presently flows
Its all in the plumbing
Though nothing is coming
And I look as I sit
At a radiator valve
And the pipe that's connected to it

Persistence of Memory

Though in a land of plenty
I can't forget my baby
Or the sunny shattered terrace
And the blackened bones of malice
The cairn of stones that covers
The body of my father
Where the wind disturbs the fibers
Of his clothing poking through

I can't forget my baby
Though my husband held her tightly
As she whimpered in the darkness
Lest the border guard should hear -
The şebeke, who took her
Said he'd take care of her
Told my husband not to worry
Told my baby not to fear

I can't forget my baby
In her bed so rough and ready
In a silence deep and solemn
As she sleeps beneath the sky
The pill that gave her slumber
Was it gentle - did it numb her
Have the wolves now found her
Was a tear upon her eye

In the nameless forest
Where they killed my dearest
Where dwells my emotion
And the part that is not here
Though in a land of plenty
I can't forget my baby
The horrors in my mem'ry
Ever standing near

The Village in the Tree #7 - The Royal Philosopher

The great man rose

A silence fell

"On matters of philosophy

Fact and practicality

As the prime authority

All defer to me"

Privately I must confirm

His hubris and pomposity

Excelled all other quality

As you may foretell

If you know him well

"'Tis well known that gravitation

Is the proven emanation

In proportion to the rank

Of heavenly procession

Therefore 'tis plain the force that pulls

The tree upright from ground to crown

From the Sun proceedeth down

And to our dire consternation

Shackled to the ground are we

By the rootstock of the tree

And this accursed manacle

Obstructs our dream of floating free

We must act at once" said he

"Without prevarication"

"Added to the sacrifice

Of eager volunteers

Shall be heroic products

Of Master Engineers

By sweat and toil and diligence

And labor of the Prole'

We'll cut the foul umbilicus

And rise together whole

Finally we shall be free

No longer Village in the Tree

We shall fly and own the view

Of horizons that are new"

"Aye" said the villagers

Held within the thrall

"Aye" said the villagers

They said it one and all

"Aye" said the villagers

They fairly shook the hall

(Not a member I

Of that fateful quorum

Merely to record the day

Sat I in the forum)

"Now should the work begin!"

Though in fact it had begun

In secrecy some years before

According to the noble law

Affording secrecy to kings,

Initiative in noble things

Since the work could not be hid

T'was time to guide the common mood

In the path of common good

That all may share the pleasure

That all may share the pain

Perhaps more importantly

That all may share the blame

"In anticipation of your every need

And through divination of decisions now agreed

Our most Royal Patron

Wisely did proceed

Without hesitation

To commence the deed

Providing liberation - to my words give heed

You thought the project just begun

When in fact 'tis nearly done!"

Thus spoke the Royal Philosoph'

And took his hat and glasses off

Immortality

The old man always pauses
In his raincoat as he comes and goes
Reaches in his pocket
To find something for the crows

The eternal crows
Anonymous they gather
Like to one another
As a twin is to his brother
A crow has not a face
That we should see lines on
Black his coat of modesty
Hides signs we could rely on

Secretly he goes
And leaves another in his place
Thus it is with crows
The eternal race

As a boy he fed the crows
Now the end is drawing near
Still he feeds as he comes and goes
After, they will still be here

Summit

Having climbed the mount
Having won the hill
Seek not yet other slopes
Pause and be still

Soon enough the call will come
Soon enough away
Rest for now the furrowed brow
Appreciate the day

The gift of God is work
But satisfaction too
So while you rest from work well done
Appreciate the view

The Village in the Tree #6 - The Council

"After due deliberation

We hereby make our proclamation"

(It is understood

That is, we understand

We in the Council chamber stand,

That is, we in it stood)

Pausing for effect dramatic

The Council Leader - rarely static

Raised his arms in supplication

To conclude the great oration

"No longer we

As the center of philosophy

Accept the premise wrongly planted

Of dependency upon the tree

Though we nestle in its bough

The tree in its entirety

Does not assure prosperity

Its nether regions then as now

Encumbering our sacred vow

To be free

Free of earthly mundane ties

Free to float into the skies

Free to choose our destiny"

At this all in attendance rise

Giving vent to joyful cries

When once order was restored

The Leader motioned with his sword

(The ceremonial sword of office

Worn at times of greatest need

So that to the Leader

All should pay the closest heed)

He motioned with his sword

To introduce august and loyal

The servant of his Lord

The Philosopher - Royal

The Village in the Tree #5 - Aside

Finally the pump is primed

We look within and there we find

Within the mill blessed grist

Now perhaps as trees may tower

Our narrative

Our parody

Our flight of moral fantasy

As if emerging from the mist

Shall flower

Sources of the Nile

The Sources of the Nile
Passed overhead today
Lofty and imperious
They paused as if to say
'We condescend to lash your streets
And wash your filth away
But not long shall we tarry
Not long shall we stay'

They are bound on a greater quest
Through many a windswept mile
And none may hinder nor molest
The Sources of the Nile

Flotsam & Jetsam

Can't remember what its all about
Turned-on tuned-in dropped-out
Love was free for half a century
But I'm still paying for the LSD
Weed and hepatitis C
And the voices keep me company

Grubby tartan - kind'a fuzzy
Where a Mohawk used to be
Tats on saggy wrinkled skin
And one too many piercings
A vaguely shadowed memory
And the voices keep me company