Sycamores
/Thomas Strunk
The other day when I felt the weight
of the roof hanging low over me,
the ceiling sinking onto my shoulders,
I cut out of there and rushed
into the sunlight, into the forest
where walnuts and sycamores arched
their canopy high above me until
I wanted to stretch my arms until
I could touch the bark and grasp
the young leaves.
And I thought of you
then. How you floated away from me
and no matter how I fought to hold on,
you wormed free of every embrace,
slipped through my fingers, disappearing
over the days and decades until I
discovered you once more, a ghost,
first in my fingertips, and then through
the soles of my feet, pulling you
back down to earth.
Author’s Statement: "Sycamores" is a poem that came to me as I walked through the woods near my home in Cincinnati. I felt that day a connection between my emotions and the shape of the trees around me. In the poem, I am trying to describe the power nature has to revive our spirits and possibly heal us.
Thomas E. Strunk is the author of the poetry collection Transfigurations (Main Street Rag 2023). His literary work has appeared in The RavensPerch, Pensive, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, and East Fork Journal among others. He is the author of History after Liberty and The Fall of the Roman Republic: Lessons for the American People. He lives in Cincinnati, where he teaches classical literature and history. Thomas is currently enrolled in the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University.
