Linda M. Crate’s most recent poem to appear here was “dying sparrow” (June 2013). 

the wild dreamer, hugger of trees
By Linda M. Crate

beyond the weeping willows
the apple trees and stars
i sat
appreciating all of the beauty
that kissed me beneath the sweet smelling pine
whose needles didn’t cut or bite
like the song of
evergreens sometimes does,
and it was an escape for me
in the heartbeat of nature i became a
single soldier of the dreamers
the warrior of light
queen and master of my own fate;
where every cruel word and action of others
slipped away from me
where i could ground myself in something deeper
than the roots of my pain—
empathy isn’t something everyone’s born with,
and people like to cut me to the quick
because my sensitive soul
caused and causes me to feel everything
so deeply;
they liked to press my wounds
just to see how far
i’d bleed—
but in this quiet place
i could find some sense of peace and of myself
the forest accepted my wildness and me
as no human ever has
thus i prefer hugging trees to people
because they kissed me with the first kindness
i’ve ever known after flowers.