Goodbye Dear Tree

I wrote this one time when I heard about the news of our dear bamboo tree being cut down for the works to be done in our creek. It's sad to say goodbye to things that we have been attached to. What more difficulty it is to say goodbye to a living thing that has been a part of our lives. With its shade gone, our neighborhood feels empty and exposed. I feel so melancholic about it. This is my poem for it, to remember it always...


Goodbye Dear Tree

It had always been there
Since I could remember
It was planted long ago
By a fellow neighbor who
Loved nature so
He died protecting it

Tall and strong
Yet pliant and humble
Its shade has been caring
Strong and protecting
Even as heat rose
In the years that came

We have seen it grown
Towering over us
Green and soothing
A pillar from nature
That creatures came home
To its simple stature

But alas one day
To save man from its doing
News came that it had to be
Cut down for our safety
Replaced by stones
Stacked hard and cold

I couldn't do anything
I wept inside
It had been there
Since I was a child
Its shade was a constant welcome
Protection from the sun

Why does nature have to pay
For our wrong ways?
Now it is gone
Its structure taken one by one
Goodbye my beloved bamboo tree
You'll always be in my memory

Perhaps the only photo I have of it