A tree falls hard inside the woods,
its thud reverberates across the forest floor.
When a tree’s cut down, at any age, on any stage;
It’s instant death, a broken neck, a heart attack,
when sliced by blade without a thought,
I have not hugged a lot of trees, and yet I wince
and turn away when they are being chopped down.
I never seem to get an answer, that really satisfies
on why they must be put to death, and why now?
All these thoughts bring me, to ponder my own mortality…
Will this next wheel’s turn, erase me from the book,
the one, not made from trees, but made of Life?
The book of the living soul, of loving, learning and creating?
I think it’s not an outrageous question, at this point in time,
Looking all around me, I consider, this forest of humanity
and everyone and everything that seems to be so vulnerable
and no one knows who will be next and marked for felling.
Karima Hoisan
January 9, 2021
Costa Rica
*Footnote.
Night before last, I was sound asleep, and woke up, repeating,
these first two lines in my mind:
“A tree falls hard inside the woods,
its thud reverberates across the forest floor.”
I wrote them down, as one never knows what the muse might want to say:)
Digital Rabbit Hole 
Lovely. And so relateable! Thank you for staying so open to your muse. 🙂
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Thank you Dale..and as far as the muse goes, she always leads me down paths I have no idea I want to walk…until I am:)
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Lovely, lovely, lovely!
I’ve been contemplating mortality a lot recently myself, Karima…
Yours,
David
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Thank you David..and yes, it’s not surprising..I guess I was thinking about it subconsciously… but it’s like the background music of our days..
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I admire a nice poem when I read one. Really lovely content.
You might want to check out my blog if you can.
https://annaanitasblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/09/reasons-why-you-should-stop-taking-milk/
Thank you
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Thank you Anita, and yes I follow your blog:)
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So powerful, Karima. I adore the way you connect the felling of trees and the potential felling of humanity. Beautiful, my friend. ❤️😊🙏
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So beautifully penned and as always, thought-provoking! It made me think of the ‘Butterfly Effect’ – there is no effect without a cause. Everything is of significance. No tree falls without making a sound, nothing is forever erased – which brings hope! “You could not remove a single grain of sand from its place without thereby … changing something throughout all parts of the immeasurable whole.” wrote Johann Gottlieb Fichte. You and your muse touched upon a great truth. Kudos!
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Thank you so much Jeff! I feel my muse made that connection, because when I found myself awake in the middle of the night, with these first two lines, running around my head, I had no idea (as I was writing them down) what else I might say… The muse works in mysterious ways:)
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You’re welcome, Karima. My pleasure, always. Ah, yes, I know that feeling, process, experience well. Have a great week, my friend. 🙏
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Oh Sis,…yes The Butterfly Effect is so true… and even a grain of sand…. can affect an ocean, can affect everything when it is moved..Wow..I love that concept of Fichte. Thank you sweet virtual and always loved Sis.. Your Pisces senitivity and your own poetic traits, have brightened up my day, with this beautiful comment. Hugs Sissy and look at this post if you have not seen it:) A couple cute pics of you in it hehe:) Love Love Love you ❤️🌺🤗🌹🌴✨🌼❤️ https://karimahoisan.com/2020/12/24/i-am-an-avatar/
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This was once again, so beautifully written, Karima!! Loved the way you have compared the death of trees to the end of life. It’s actually so similar. We never know when our time is near and yet sometimes we wonder if it is….. considering the way the world is at the moment..
Stay blessed my dear, keep that muse coming. Much love, hugs and peace to you, dear one. ❤️🤗💐💐☺️🙏
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Thank you my dear poetic friend..so glad you liked what was just a subconscious thought..that grew into a poem in the morning:) Does that ever happen to you? I know enough , by now, to always write those weird lines and phrases down..Although we might not be even aware of it, our creative subconscious is collecting our dreams, to turn them into poems..later.on..Oh the magic of it all!! Hugs you tight for your love of poetry too and your special talent in it habeebity! 🤗❤️🌺💐🌈🌸⭐️🌟❤️🤗
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Amazing perspective 👌👌
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Ohh thank you so much for taking the time to leave me a comment…That is very sweet of you..so glad you enjoyed the perspective in this one:):) 🙏🌺🌟
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I love it… you capture your muse’s whisperings so earnestly, Karima. It speaks so softly, so hesitantly sometimes that it feels the message is not that significant perhaps. We note it down, mostly mentally. Then, as the day progresses, the voice gets louder. The words we are reading in some book leap out in their advocacy, TV shows begin talking about it, and the message suddenly takes on an authoritative, and wonderful sense, and unveils itself completely. Then comes the job of expressing it. And you are a master at that. As lovely as ever…🍀🍀🍀
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Sundaram…I am late to reply to your comment, but I loved it, the first minute I read it:) That is it!! In my case however, if I don’t actually write it down..on something, it gets lost 😦 and I think..”Why didn’t I just wake up enough to write it down?” But you are right, the poem ,or in your case the seeds for a story don’t grow right away…Those little lines are just small whisperings, that take hold after we associate it with something, we really want to say..just didn’t realize it at the time..It’s so amazing, this creative process..I am always sitting in the back seats cheering wildly. about.how all of this works… practically without us..until as you say it begins to unveil itself and we writers and poets step in . Thank you dear Sundarma; your comments always leave me so motivated with a smile from ear to ear. Blessings for you always and may your creativity become a river,,that enthralls and takes us all along as we keep reading you, knowing you, enjoying you. 🤗🌺🌸🌼
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Thanks so much my friend… 🙏🙏🙏 Take care…🍀🍀🎼🍀🍀
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Oh habeebity, this is so relatable to me!! I too think about it a lot, when will my turn come and I will be erased out, what will I leave behind and what people will think of me as.. And you know when at night you think of all of this, it really hard to sleep🙂 You wrote this so deep, so beautifully UmJulian, your words are so powerful as always, goes straight to one’s heart. ❤️❤️❤️
Love and hugs ❤️❤️🤗🤗🤗💕
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Oh habeebity, UmAnzar ❤️ Yes these are the times we are living, that makes us write words such as this, think these words and lose sleep over our thoughts and fears of such an uncertain future. Still we must trust that Allah alem.. always knows best for us. I really do believe that, and in the end, we can’t control everything, so after we do what we can, surrender is such a powerful answer to all that makes us fearful and uneasy, Big hugs to you and sorry I have been a little absent, but I am very deeply committed to finishing my virtual world. and there is still so much to do:):) But I have not forgiven my sweet UmAnzar and always love to read your comments, your postings and your replies. Give that little tornado a twirl for me habeebity:) ❤️ Allah hafiz 🤗❤️🙏🌸🌼
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Yes we do write what we go through 😊 Indeed, Allah knows what’s best for us. Looking forward to having a sneak peek into your virtual world😍❤️ That’s sooo sweet of you Habeebity, am really happy to hear that 🤗💕 Haha.. I sure will☺️
Allah hafiz ❤️❤️❤️🤗🤗🤗🤗
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Beautiful
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Thank you so much and welcome to my blog:)
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Powerful👍🏻
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Thank you so much Athira and welcome to my blog:):) 🌸🌹💐
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Thank you Karima
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My pleasure Athira…I am exploring your blog now:)
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This is such a great poem, because it gets at something far beyond words. It reminds me that trees might have tree souls, plants might have plant souls, animals have animal souls, and so on and so forth. We have this concept in western society that trees cannot feel perhaps, but it could be totally wrong. Perhaps we just can’t understand the feelings and language of certain things. And likewise, you get too the root of the universe: everything is interrelated. Very nicely done!
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Ohhh yes..I think we are understanding more about how trees and plants communicate..build networks in the roots that can communicate things that we might not even understand or perceive…Watching our friends and neighbors who have fallen, how can we not see this forest of humanity, being culled by this plague… Inshallah We will survive! Thank you Ben for your great insight once again, into my poetry…
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Beautiful and very sad. A forest of humanity. This is a reminder to take each fallen figure to heart. Our time to fall will be soon at hand. Hopefully someone will take that fall to heart!
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Thank you Hoyt…that’s all we can hope for…that some will lovingly remember us, like we have remembered those, fallen before us…
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Beautiful picture, and so true, this poem.
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Thank you so much for your comment.. Sadly it is a true happening in our time, hopefully our grandchildren someday, will only show a mild interest in that thing of the past, called a “pandemic”
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Right!
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