An original springtime poem – commissioned for the Woodland Trust

The Guardian

03-03-2025

Sestina for a spring in exile
Like the rising of the sun, every year brings the same,
though somehow it always feels like a new beginning:
the earth yawns, shakes the trees,
and the woods know it is time.
The season turns again
and brings along a new wind.
Though slightly warmer, this wind,
the people shrug, pretend it is the same.
They go into the woods again
to look for tender signs of beginning –
only to watch the blossoms burst before their time,
and cross the graves of sapling trees.
They have not grown new rings, these trees,
and he is no zephyr, this wind.
The fleeing feet of springtime
cry out that all is not the same,
that this is no slow-ripening beginning,
an ancient hourglass has turned once again.
Yes, gin berries swell in their clusters again,
the song thrushes dash snail shells against the trees,
but spring has overshot her beginning.
Dogged by a fevered wind,
her exile echoes, each footstep calling out the same:
we are running out of time.
If they had noticed the unravelling of time
Perhaps they might have searched for frogspawn again,
or checked the burgeoning nests, no two clutches the same.
Perhaps they would have gone out amongst the trees,
stood still, sought the coolness of the wind,
and enjoyed the unfolding of the year's beginning.
Though they shall not change the beginning –
re-bud the flowers, turn back time,
halt the passage of the wind –
They might learn to listen again,
and know they speak the language of the trees
for the woods' exhale, their breath – it is the same.
Oh, it has always been the same –
as empires rise and fall, so do the trees.
We create, then destroy. Then create again.
***********
Amani Saeed is an interdisciplinary creative who treads the line between roots and routes. A former Barbican Young Poet, she has performed for audiences at the Royal Albert Hall, in London, Saeed's poetry collection Split is published with Burning Eye Books. Beyond her poetry, Saeed was a co-writer on the short film Queer Parivaar, which premiered at the BFI Flare 2022 and won Best British Short at the Iris Prize awards 2022, and is founder of The Hen-nah Party, an interdisciplinary open mic night by and for queer South Asians.
Discover more about spotting spring's vital signs and help the Woodland trust check on the health of planet by logging your sightings at woodlandtrust.org.uk/vitalsigns