Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Dragon Tree!

Another sneak preview from Poetrees, coming this spring via Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Here's the Dragon Tree based on an exotic species found in Africa, Asia, and the Canary Islands. Its sap is bright red in color and called dragon's blood, and its stems and branches are said to resemble the legs of a dragon. I keep the one in my backyard under close watch. Note the intricate rhyme scheme, internal rhyme, and alliteration.





Dragon Tree

The dragons all heap scorn on me
Because I'm born an earthly tree.
While dragons roam and dragons race,
I'm stuck at home, tied to one place.
For though my sap is dragon's blood,
My roots are trapped in dirt and mud.
Great claws I grow
But I can't gore.
And I don't know
To even roar.
In dragon dreams I scheme to fly
And scream in fire across the sky.
To leave this lowly life terrestrial,
And soar, what's more, in skies celestial.

poem, Dragon Tree, and image copyright 2010 by Douglas Florian

7 comments:

Tricia said...

I am so looking forward to this one. As a facilitator for Project Learning Tree, I can see it fitting in nicely with the Poetry activities in my workshop.

BTW, happy new year to you!

Douglas Florian said...

btw
happy new year
2 u 2!

Kelly Polark said...

I am not as educated as I thought you see.
I have never even heard of a dragon tree!
Amazing illustration!

Chiara said...

lovely poem!

happy new year florian!

thanks again
Chiara

Anonymous said...

Poems are lovely,
and so are trees,
but even better
are Poe-Trees!

laurasalas said...

Fantastic! Especially:

In dragon dreams I scheme to fly
And scream in fire across the sky.

Very cool.

matt at shadow of iris said...

Very beautiful
such a soft gentle dragon
not dangerous at all
and all around us
everyday.