Between Past and Future

For the April 'poem a day' challenge this year, I'm writing haibun to explore and reflect on my new Tarot deck, Forests of Enchantment. 

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‘The forest is old and full of stories,’ says the book that came with the cards. Instead of the traditional Hierophant or teacher, we meet The Oldest One, a large, ancient yew tree which acts as ‘memory keeper’, telling you the old tales if you are willing to listen, and receiving whatever stories of your own you care to leave in the forest while passing through. (It finally dawns on me that the forest is a metaphor for Life.) 

We learn, then, from what has gone before, and have our own lessons to pass on to the future. If there is a future … but I don’t want to go there. It may or may not be too late. We can’t yet know for certain, and must hope that the future may learn from us, and learn in time.

We don’t have yew trees in Australia. I grew up loving other trees. They always felt like my friends. As a child in their branches, I felt invisible. I felt safe. 

But I have some English ancestry; and my Anglo-Indian mother went to boarding school in England as a child, and loved the place. So I guess I can relate – even though I was always more interested in the Indian and Scottish bits of my heritage.

And Tarot began in Europe. Well, some say (and I think I believe them) that it really began in India – no yew trees there either, I think! But then it migrated to Europe, and spread.

Many times I have thought to write the fascinating family tales about my immediate forbears, which I heard as a child – but I always run out of steam. After all, those are stories I was told. I must now pass on my own. If I have anything to teach, to leave behind for those who come after, should it not arise from my first-hand experience of living? 

hidden 

child in the blue gum 

shielded