“In the Trees” by Christopher Ware


I’ve no reason to think he ever really left,
For the soil doesn’t allow us to rest,
It puts our bodies to work
As undersecretaries for flowers and oak trees.

I get to check up on him each autumn,
When his beard turns the leaves russet
And I imagine him being belched out,
To be mixed with the mid morning air.


Christopher Ware is a poet from London, England. He writes under the sobriquet, Charlton Poetic – an ode to his South London roots. Poetry is something of a therapeutic exercise for Christopher, who began writing again after suffering a breakdown a couple of years ago. As a result, he work uses the narrative of personal experience to explore wider themes, with an intense focus on the lyrical.