The Elven Oak

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‘the tongue is the spine’s first leaf’
……………………….– John Berger


If what you say is true –

and it must be
for whenever I repeat it
to myself
I grow taller,
taste rising sap –

then grief,
that sour clench
in my stomach
at the news
of the loss of your voice,
is the burl of the torso:

a barked knot
of wild grain
that warps the birthing ring
of this new year –

but worked
by careful hand
may convert a canker
into our re-enchanted Earth;
and left to age
give courage girth.

 

Naomi Foyle
Jan 2 2016

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One Response to The Elven Oak

    1. […] John embodied.  That line became an epigraph of a poem in his memory this week, published today by International Times. Here at BWISP I will leave you with his own words, his personal message to the signatories of the […]

      Pingback by Jenny Diski and John Berger: In Gratitude Both | British Writers In Support of Palestine on 5 January, 2017 at 7:51 pm

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