In order to view this poem with the line breaks the author intended, we suggest reading it on a computer screen or in the landscape orientation on your phone or tablet.

White Pine
Mary Mercier

Its needles fired
in the kiln of rising temperatures
know more than I do
about the earth to come. I mourn

its rust and faded crown—
even more, my neighbor’s need
to cut it down
though I understand

its falling weight (just inches
from the house) is far too much to carry
through the night.

Would that I
could catch its embers,
mix the ash with seeds—replant,
repair, repent.

—
Mary Mercier is a poet inspired by the bite of old glaciers. Her chapbook Small Acts was published by Parallel Press and her poems have appeared in Northern Woodlands, Mezzo Cammin, Stoneboat, and other journals. A finalist for the Birdy Poetry Prize, her collection Five Reports of Fugitive Dust has just been published by Meadowlark Press.

Know anyone who might appreciate reading Mary’s poem?
Why not share the link to this page?

Have you read these poems:
The Amazing Falling Woman by Madeline Izzo
Lizard Brain by Charles Grosel

Table of Contents