The Linden Tree by Jeevan Bhagwat

October 5, 2023
Poem title: The Linden Tree Poet name: Jeevan Bhagwat Poem: Your loveliness took root inside me, branched its way through my body till my spirit cried out with an aria of linden leaves. All this time you watched over me, ringed my years with dendrochronology, while my sapling dreams sprouted and grew. Lovers came and went, friends disappeared, but always, there was you steadfast and true, who oxygenated my lungs when hope was hard to breathe. When the dark shadow comes to cut me down in the twilight of my days to be, know that you carved your name on my heart, and filled my life with beauty. End of poem. Credits and bio: Copyright © Jeevan Bhagwat Previously published in Luminescence, (IN Publications, 2020), Worth More Standing, (Caitlin Press, 2022). I live and work in Scarborough, Ontario. My poems have been widely published in Canada, the U.S. and internationally. In 2003 and 2005, I won the Monica Ladell Prize for Poetry and in 2015, I was the recipient of the Scarborough Urban Hero Award for Arts and Culture. In 2023 I won the Ontario Poetry Society’s Across The Universe Poetry Contest. I am the co-facilitator of the Scarborough Poetry Club. My poetry books include The Weight of Dreams (IN Publications, 2012) and Luminescence (IN Publications, 2020).