Give Your Burden to the Trees by C. Stuart Lewis
Take a walk among the trees.
Give them your problems & worries.
Their roots are deep to hold them steady.
They can hold your burdens,
Put them deep in the ground,
Feed them through thick trunks
To leaves open to the sky,
Where they release as oxygen.
Breath out.
Breath in.
Give your burden to the tree.
My favorite poem whispers through the leaves
Filtered like sunlight dappled upon the trail
Breadcrumbs along the pathway
Temptation for the tired soul
“Walk these trodden footsteps
Here among the trees”
I walk here in the midst of green and brown
Breathing in the scent of recycled carbon dioxide
Life springs all around
Yet death too lays beneath my feet
Summer soil to feed spring’s grown seed
Yet no burden does weigh my shoulders down
I step between the trunks of rings
Time’s passage counted in circles
Yesterday’s storms are not my present worry
Tomorrow’s rainbows are not yet circles complete
I walk beneath the branches that grow from stem and root
Home of the bird as it sings
I gave my burden to the trees
Fed their roots as I shuffled my feet
Walked alone
In my silent therapy
Breathing in
Breathing out
Letting my problems and worries
Fall like the leaves
This poem is from a prompt from dVerse: Write a poem that either mentions the woods/forest, is set in a woods, or is motivated by one of the three images above.
It made me immediately think of the first poem which I had written quite a while ago. One of my favorites. Then I decided to use that as inspiration for the new poem. And that is what you have before you now. I hope you enjoy!
The Author Stew webpage - Stories & Poems 
“I gave my burden to the treesFed their roots as I shuffled my feetWalked aloneIn my silent therapyBreathing inBreathing outLetting my problems and worriesFall like the leaves”
This gave me such a sense of peace.
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A poetic description of the benefits of forest bathing, as rich in well being as your words.
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I feel like I was with you in these poems..the first as good advice, the second walking along with you.
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Both poems are beautiful, Stew! Walking among the trees is a wonderful way to emotionally detox.
Yvette M Calleiro 🙂
http://yvettemcalleiro.blogspot.com
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‘Give your burden to the trees’ – that sums up how I feel about forests/trees – just lovely Stew
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Thank you! I feel the same! 😊
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Love your 2 poems and indeed walking and giving the “burdens” to the trees is therapeutic and very calming. Third stanza is specially lovely with the perspectives of time – past and future with the present very much grounded from stem to root.
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Thank you Grace! I’m glad it resonated with you. 😊
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Two lovely poem, and I love how you gave a sense of the strength of the trees…. how much they may help us.
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I find strength among the trees, walking through the forests. It takes a certain strength to help with the burdens of others.
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I enjoyed both poems, Stew, and the way the new poem was inspired by the old. I love that the first is an invitation, which is the perfect hook, and had me longing to get out there among the trees. It’s also a bit like a mantra. What I enjoyed about the second poem is the opening line, the use of colour, those ‘breadcrumbs along the pathway’ – another kind of invitation – and the circles in the trunks and rainbows. I also love the thought of ‘letting my problems and worries fall like the leaves’.
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Thanks Kim! So glad you enjoyed it! Hope you got to / get to go out among the trees! 😊
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You;re welcome, Stew. I went yesterday to a country house with lots of land including wetland and woods. It was wonderful.
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