Hedera – a haibun

My response to dVerse Haibun Monday #7; I have chosen the Charles Bukowski quotation:

 ‘Find what you love and let it kill you.  Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness. Let it kill you and let it devour your remains.’

The curly willow tree in our garden is being strangled by ivy that creeps up the trunk, a glossy, dark green constricting snake. I have given up removing it because it creeps back again and, at the end of every summer, produces bright yellow flowers to crown the willow.

 

Curly willow weeps

In the stranglehold of ivy

Relinquished to love

 

© Kim M. Russell, 2016

Deer under the willow tree

9 thoughts on “Hedera – a haibun”

    1. Thank you. I was worried that the prose was too short and not really a narrative. I wrote it as a metaphor for the sometimes stifling possessiveness of love and, as you have said, the willingness to risk death for love.

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  3. That is quite a tug of war by nature, one from tree & another from the ivy ~ I hope the ivy doesn’t totally kill the willow tree ~ This can also be a metaphor for a relationship, perhaps a toxic one ~

    Thanks for joining our Haibun Monday Kim ~ Have a wonderful week ~

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    1. Luckily, contrary to popular belief, ivy isn’t a parasite, so it doesn’t take all of the goodness out of the tree, and so far it hasn’t damaged the willow at all, which just keeps growing and growing. It’s the willow that needs to be trimmed every now and again. You are right about the metaphor. Have a great weekend and I look forward to more poetry!

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  4. SmiLes.. trimMer oF sidewalks..
    bushes.. and trees of
    undesirables.. once
    i am.. too..
    now weeds
    and wild vines
    are the greaTest
    of Life.. i for one
    see/feEL.. now..
    set FREE by i…

    DandeLion
    lives free..
    fiEld oF i..:)

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