A course on trees at Birmingham Botanical Gardens

For two hours we sit on plastic chairs
Entranced by The Man Who Knows About Trees.
Beauty and science combine when one sees
The chlorophyll green that April wears.

There’s a book on bark and a book about leaves,
I’m aghast at the age of the gymnosperms,
The forest floor heaves with fungi and worms -
And I marvel: a tree nor rejoices nor grieves

But, capturing  sunlight in order to grow,
Heedless breathes oxygen into the air -
We owe them our life in the world we share.
And the science enriches what I know:

That the glorious limes, whose leaves turn gold,
When I was born were already old.
And the maple, which in autumn flares red,
Will still be here when I am dead.