Padma Venkatraman
Padma Venkatraman, American writer and oceanographer, lived in 5 countries, visited many more, explored rainforests on remote islands, played with mathematics, was chief scientist on research vessels, and decided to share the sea of stories within her, through her books, as she sailed through life with her family. Source
Whenever you see a tree
Think
how many long years
this tree waited as a seed
for an animal or bird or wind or rain
to maybe carry it to maybe the right spot
where again it waited months for seasons to change
until time and temperature were fine enough to coax it
to swell and burst its hard shell so it could send slender roots
to clutch at grains of soil and let tender shoots reach toward the sun
Think how many decades or centuries it thickened and climbed and grew
taller and deeper never knowing if it would find enough water or light
or when conditions would be right so it could keep on spreading leaves
adding blossoms and dancing
Next time
you see
a tree
think
how
much
hope
it holds
Published:
2021
Length:
Shorty
Literary Movements:
Contemporary
Anthology Years:
2022
Themes:
Faith & Hope
Nature
Poetic Form
Literary Devices:
Assonance
The repetition of similar vowel sounds that takes place in two or more words in proximity to each other within a line; usually refers to the repetition of internal vowel sounds in words that do not end the same.
Bleeding Title
when the title of a poem acts as the first line
Imagery
visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work
Internal Rhyme
A rhyme involving a word in the middle of a line and another at the end of the line or in the middle of the next.
Metaphor
a comparison between two unrelated things through a shared characteristic
Personification
the attribution of human qualities to a non-human thing
Slant Rhyme
A rhyme where the words have similar sounds in their stressed syllables.
Visual Poetry
Poetry written on the page with intentional form to add meaning to the poem.