She asked me,
“Poppa, What is love?”
And I thought and then said
“Love is what you need and want it to be.”
She thought some and said,
“Love is a tree.”
And I thought that she was so right.
And I think of how my tree looks
compared to hers, how they are both
trees, but so different,
About the seasons in which our trees
Grow, about how some trees grow straight
and true, others, well. . . .
Yes, love is a tree.
***
Born in 1946, Earl B. Frederick has been writing poetry since his teens. Educated in the Earth Sciences, and having enjoyed a career with NASA, his poems have a connection to nature, trying to emulate the spirit and tempo of Haiku. He is a gardener and observer of the rhythms of the seasons at his home on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
