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The Bristlecone Pine
For centuries, the stalwart pine has stood
__in this unwonted spot.
Its shallow roots and resinous hard wood
__shield it from drought and rot.
__Thin soil, high winds, cold air:
it thrives where other living things cannot.
__Dear tree, please hear my prayer.
__Lend me your purple cone
to plant inside my heart, its chambers bare,
__arteries hard as bone.
__For from your potent seed,
that germinates on bleak and barren stone,
__fresh hope will sprout. Indeed,
to love’s avowals I’d once again accede.
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Poet’s Note: I visited the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains in California some 20 years ago. Bristlecone pines are the longest living non-clonal organisms on earth and can live thousands of years.
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Addiction
—a pantoum
Opiates steal a naïve soul.
At first the drug’s a kindly friend.
The mind expands, a joyous whole,
anguish and pain draw near their end.
At first the drug’s a kindly friend.
All tarnished edges glitter gold,
anguish and pain draw near their end.
Alas, a baleful tone takes hold.
All tarnished edges glitter gold.
Bright feelings sprout new wings to fly.
Alas, a baleful tone takes hold,
a downdraft batters from on high.
Bright feelings sprout new wings to fly.
A fledgling soars, but can’t rebound;
a downdraft batters from on high.
It crashes hard, dies on the ground.
A fledgling soars, but can’t rebound.
Though wings expand, a joyous whole,
it crashes hard, dies on the ground.
Opiates steal both mind and soul.
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Mary Jane Myers resides in Springfield, Illinois. She is a retired JD/CPA tax specialist. Her debut short story collection Curious Affairs was published by Paul Dry Books in 2018.
“The Bristlecone Pine” is a creative concept of transplanting one of the cones into the heart for restoration, especially with the thought of loving once again.
“Addiction” treats one of the problems of modern medical prescriptions that takes away pain and suffering but then becomes the problem itself. Both flow nicely and are very well conceived.
Dear Roy
Thank you for your kind comments. Each poem adheres to a rigid form–with an exact rhyming pattern–and each took a lot of time–the drafts simply weren’t “quite right.” So I kept putting the drafts away, and taking them out, “sleeping” on them, etc. etc.
Most sincerely
Mary Jane
Well, Mary Jane, I’ve heard you can buy bristlecone pine cones, but especially after the cute baby stage when they’re entirely purple, one of them would probably scratch severe damage into a human heart. Still, there must have been worse reasons for trying plant medicinals. Your poem lays out those reasons in good contrast to the bleakest, hardest heart disease–physical and emotional! The touch of an extra syllable in your final line suggests sprouting induced by “love’s avowals.”
“Addiction” makes good use of the lines from a pantoum’s first stanza repeated in the last. In this poem, the fledgling and the battering downdraft represent the natural outdoor images brought in to develop your description of the effect of opioid addiction. This is an excellent way to depict the baleful changes from initial use to final results all too likely even when the drugs are prescribed and used under supervision. I also appreciate the middle warning sign of “tarnished edges glitter gold.” Nicely thought out!
Dear Margaret
Thank you for your careful reading of my two poems. I didn’t realize the purple pine cones are commercially available. I’m pleased you note a subtlety in my word “avowals” that I hadn’t realized was there. I used the word to suggest the danger in yet once again opening up a broken heart. A mother’s love (we hope) is unconditional toward her baby. But the love of lovers is hardly unconditional, as they negotiate “terms” with one another. “Avowals” are easily and thoughtlessly discarded.
Birds nest continually in my neighborhood–and I even had wrens nesting deep inside my HVAC air duct last year–what a mess they made! There are many fledglings who don’t make it. One constantly notices the tiny dead bodies at rest on the ground. I’m not sure how my mind made the connection to “addiction”–one of those mysterious poetic leaps of the imagination (easy for geniuses, much more difficult for me!) –but I’m hopeful it works.
Most sincerely
Mary Jane
“The Bristlecone Pine” is a wonderful extended metaphor. And I like the way you’ve used meter: sometimes five meters, sometimes three.
The pantoum form, with its pattern of repetitions, seems especially suited to “Addiction”, perhaps because the ideas that need to be emphasized. Your allusion to the proverb “All that glitters is not gold” makes for great imagery and insight.
Dear Cynthia
Thank you for your kind comments. Strict adherence to “traditional form” is a challenge. I’m so grateful that this forum publishes those of us who are fascinated with traditional rhyme and meter.
Most sincerely
Mary Jane
The Bristlecone pine – is that the one which releases its seeds when affected by fire?
Dear Cheryl
No, these pines are found at high-altitude, freezing-cold, arid, rocky environments where fire danger is minimal. The visitor to the White Mountains forest realizes how remarkable these trees are. How can any living thing possibly grow in such a forbidding environment? ‘Tiz a puzzlement!
Sincerely
Mary Jane
Dear Mary Jane,
Addiction is a beautifully written and sad poem. The fourth verse is my favorite – the imagery is excellent.
Gigi
Dear Gigi
Thank you for your kind comments. The pantoum form is tricky–but quite satisfying if somehow those repeating lines come together!
Most sincerely
Mary Jane
These are both excellent, well-structured poems, Mary Jane. I love the remorseless flow of addiction towards its inevitable conclusion. This poem deals with a real and all-too-common issue, with some fitting metaphors. I also loved the stoicism of The Bristlecone Pine.
Dear Morrison
Thank you for your kind comments. Alcohol and drug addiction affects all of us. It doesn’t care about the “divides” of class/religion/race/ethnicity/politics etc. So it’s a fitting subject for poetry. The challenge is to find apt poetic metaphors that can suggest its catastrophic damage.
I love your characterization of the pines as “stoic.” That, they are, these strange intrepid trees!
Most sincerely
Mary Jane
I found ‘The Bristlecone Pine’ a spiritually fulfilling piece of writing that will be lodged in my mind for a long time.
Thanks for the read, Mary Jane.