The Buddha became enlightened
under an old fig tree
Jesus prayed in Gethsemane
under an olive tree
Isaac Newton’s epiphany came
under an apple tree
If you can’t figure out how to change your world,
seems to me
you should find a tree and put your back into it.
Taken on October 6, 2019 at Auroville
trunk bent at a right angle
and leaning to the south
yet, that tree shows no struggle
every second — day and night
gravity summons it to the ground
it’s survived more than a few monsoons
puddles and soggy soil
have conspired with gravity
the wind has conspired
climbing animals have conspired
alighting hawks and crows have conspired
the boy who crawled out the horizontal limb and swung conspired
for years they have conspired
but the tree rarely so much as trembles
it’s doomed, but that knowledge holds no sway
and when i sit,
centered to thwart gravity,
i still feel the dogged pull
though its only conspirator is
my mind
I
lonesome oak on a hill
having outlived your peers
your progeny denied the light
by scythe and mower blade alike
II
it’s said you speak by pheromone
but no whiff is caught when alone
your words disperse unsmelt
lost across a manmade veldt
III
if it’s any consolation
you have our unflagging admiration
you’re the model of stately poise
to all the little girls and boys
who swing about your stout limbs
Taken in April of 2017 in Botswana
Taken in December of 2014 in Szentendre, Hungary
Did you hear that tree speak to me?
It did not make an eager plea
to help it step out to the quay
so it could set off ‘cross the sea.
Tree’s don’t dream of mobility,
except perhaps windward to lee.
Trees seek only food and water,
and hold the hope of harmless squatters.
Taken from inside Sidi Saiyyed Mosque in Ahmedabad
Taken at Jama Masjid in Ahmedabad on September 30, 2017
Tiger Riding for Beginners 