Sequoias by Paul Waring

Passive as priests at confession
sequoias wait open-armed
to receive storms.

Watch widow-black clouds
gather to grieve drum-heavy
on parched leaves,

feed neural pathways,
deep along unquenchable
quarry of roots.

After rain, itchy bark beetle
and fleet-footed squirrels
in stop-start relays.

Warbler, tanager and nuthatch notes;
distant rata-tat-tat echoes
of woodpeckers back at work.



Paul Waring is a retired clinical psychologist from Wirral, UK. His poetry is published in Prole, Atrium, Obsessed With Pipework, Ink, Sweat & Tears, London Grip and elsewhere. Awarded second place in the 2019 Yaffle Prize, commended in the 2019 Welshpool Poetry Competition, his pamphlet ‘Quotidian’ is published by Yaffle.