can you love december me
as much as you loved me in april?
-
i saw how you fell for my vibrant life;
bright green and secure.
no wind could knock me down.
i was shaded relief
for the days when sunscreen wasn’t enough.
you couldn’t wait for us to see winter together.
-
as my leaves blended in with early sunsets
they fell with the sky, too.
you, though, still collected them
the pretty and dull alike.
raked them into place and became
one with the pile.
you loved my life even as it faded.
you whispered to my dying soul
how the snow is even softer.
-
but then i shivered as the whispered songs
of december rolled through my spindling branches,
for i am not a temperate creature.
lest winter come and
all these other things be added to me.
-
would you still sit under me
for shade that is skinny and colder?
would you visit me when i’m barren
and the husks of my old happiness aren't among you?
would you still love me at my lowest
when all i see is icy days ahead
and spring is a distant memory?
how does winter make you feel now,
knowing what it does to me?
-
i, though, was a fool to think i mean so little to you
that snow, and naked branches, and
days that get dark at 5 pm
would keep you away.
you’ll love me despite it all.
should spring never arrive again,
you would still trek through the powder
to drop by and say more than hello.
i know you will love me out of season.
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125,021 Literary Works • 672,740 Reviews
hey! you might be my favorite artist ever now. this poem is genuinely beautiful. really amazingly well done
where do i start? the poetic symbolism? the message that love is enduring? the message that someone will love you no matter what? if you can't tell, i love this poem.
let's start at the beginning. i think the narrator is meant to be a tree, but the tree's thoughts are pretty easily applied to a human too. the tree/human narrator fell in love when he was at his best, and reliable and solid. even as his leaves/happiness began to fade, as he became less solid and weaker, his partner still stuck with him, collecting his leaves/happiness and keeping them near.
but then tragedy strikes. the cold winter hits, and december instills fear into our tree/human. the poem becomes exquisite after this winter interlude. truly becomes magnificent. the questions asked in the stanza starting with "would you still sit under me" are truly amazing. i've never related to anything more.
our tree/human becomes scared that their partner will leave after the narrator loses all his attractiveness and strength, after all the leaves/happiness are gone. but thankfully, their partner is something special. even though it's freezing, and the tree/human is completely vulnerable, the partner doesn't care. they make the constant choice to keep loving the tree/human, and our narrator is surprised that he even questioned it.
this is the most perfect line to end this poem. our narrator's fears are all extinguished, and he lives happy with his partner.
overall, amazing amazing poem. keep it up, really!
with much love, ash
Hiii thank you so much for this review. So sorry for the late response but you broke down the poem so well. Exactly what I was going for !!!
thank you!!! i really loved it amazing job
Hello, there! Avi speaking
Holy smokes, @FireEyes... This poem is incredible.
First off, lemme get started on the title. We're viewing this as a tree. Or are we viewing this as a human thinking of themself as the tree? Either way, tree. That fits. Then we see "bandaged knees". This poem is all about loving someone enough to stay with them through the bad and comfort their wounds with your presence, bandaged knees often being a way to symbolize that. So heck yes to that part of the title, as well! This does seem to be a bit of a love poem, so love fits!
Second, the opening stanza sets up our expectations for the poem, and my, does it do it beautifully. April is spring and spring is beauty and growth. December is winter and winter is fear and death. A wonderful way to set it up.
Third, the poem itself and the imagery in it. The vibrant life is after it had just begun to grow in April- summer is when it is at its peak, and that is when the poem gifts us the second stanza. Summer is when the narrator brings shade and the person who loves the narrator is seeking shade and is excited to spend all the time they can with the narrator, with or without shade or sun, though the narrator doesn't quite know that yet. There is no real uncertainty in this stanza or the next, which showcases autumn. The imagery of the lover loving both the tree's decay and growth is beautiful and incredible writing. This stanza, too, doesn't show too much true uncertainty, only the beginning of it
("you loved my life even as it faded.
you whispered to my dying soul
how the snow is even softer."), which we find more of as we move to the next stanza and the chill of the coming winter. The tree sees December as a threat, as this terrifying, unstoppable thing that will torment and ultimately break the love they share. The stanza after this brings us full circle to the April-December quip in the beginning just before it returns to the plot of it all (the love plot and winter, not the beautiful prosaic plot of the doubt that's churning in the tree's head).
The final stanza is something anyone who has ever been truly in love can resonate with. Loving someone "out of season" is loving every part of them at every time. To quote Dorian Havilliard from Sarah J Maas's Throne of Glass series, "You cannot pick and choose which parts of them to love." Therefore, you must love all of them all of the time. Even when storms shake them and they seem to be just a husk of the person you love. They are there, and they are them, and you love them.
Overall, this is an incredible poem, and I enjoyed reading and reviewing it very much. Happy Writing! <333