Alder Tree

Alder Tree

Alder snakebite bark

Almost adder in colour

Almost has a bark worse than its bite

As a Dog, loyal to the damp wet lands

As a watch dog waiting in water for his master’s return

Almost ‘Alter’ another a changed tree

Made different by a root’s width geometry

Haltered stopped in its snake tracks

Through the river in the swamp

Just like a traveller chosen to stand and stare up

More upward and proper than the wayward willow

More symmetrical like a spiral

Or a cart wheel a Mandala blowing free

Generous with its fruit, and looking brown

And warm with its little lanterns of nut-cones hanging down