July 2023
Michael Gessner
mjcg3@aol.com
Author's Note: "'Ombra mai fu' ('Never was there a shade,') is perhaps the most durable short lyrical verse libretto in all of literature; the apogee of the aboreal paean, if only for Händel's treatment of Minato's lines," (Analects, 2019). Here, the largo is sung by Andreas Scholl. My little poem is yet another defense of the significance of this noble gift of the earth, especially now during a time of massive deforestation. It appeared earlier this year in the Arlington Literary Journal.

The Plane Tree

In Aesop’s fable the plane tree
is a good-for-nothing, its fruit
useless, its leaves clutter the ground

or so the complaining travelers say
who’ve sought its shade
under its bushy back, which in turns

is tortured and soothed
by its abusive protector,
sister sun.

In Händel’s Xerxes, the king
sings a paean* to such a tree
and has been called a fool

for only fools can love a tree,
and always a countertenor arrives,
an elegant parafem, to recall its lyric place;

model lover that human neglect
has not changed, without you 
and your family there would not be

air to breathe, not science or art
no speech for travelers
to complain or praise.

*“Ombra mai fu,” the opening aria
Originally published in Arlington Literary Journal
©2023 Michael Gessner
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