Obelų žiedai

Žiūrim - krinta patylomis
Obelų žiedai.
Plaštakėlėmis baltomis,
Žiūrim - krinta patylomis.
Rodos, sniego atkarpomis
Snigo tik andai, -
Žiūrim - krinta patylomis
Obelų žiedai.

Before the war an apple tree had stood behind the church. It was an apple tree that ate its own apples.

I Am Vertical

But I would rather be horizontal.
I am not a tree with my root in the soil
Sucking up minerals and motherly love
So that each March I may gleam into leaf,
Nor am I the beauty of a garden bed
Attracting my share of Ahs and spectacularly painted,
Unknowing I must soon unpetal.
Compared with me, a tree is immortal
And a flower-head not tall, but more startling,
And I want the one's longevity and the other's daring.

Tonight, in the infinitesimal light of the stars,
The trees and flowers have been strewing their cool odors.
I walk among them, but none of them are noticing.
Sometimes I think that when I am sleeping
I must most perfectly resemble them--
Thoughts gone dim.
It is more natural to me, lying down.
Then the sky and I are in open conversation,
And I shall be useful when I lie down finally:
The the trees may touch me for once, and the flowers have time for me.

"I Am Vertical", 28 March 1961

But only God can make a tree.

I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree

If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it had better not come at all