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Issue 4 Poetry

Oak Tree

The feedback was mostly helpful in showing me how I needed to separate certain sections of my work so it all flowed a little smoother. That and how certain vocabulary was either too rigged or too snooty for talking about nature. The feedback that was most helpful and most transferable was considering the type of language that’s used throughout a piece of writing and making sure the grammar is fluid. What seems important for now is ensuring a consistent and smooth language style is employed throughout a piece and all grammar stays in check.

Stay with me 

My closest friend

Don’t leave just yet 

Come and take this walk with me

Down the ancient forest sweep

Past the bend of riverrun

Alongside all the singing wildbirds 

Let’s walk through your forest

Listen to the music of your water

And eye down the flutter of your birds 

Show me all the beauty

Down this snakish oak path 

And tell me how to act 

As one of your own kind

And teach me how to spare a hand

Oh! Stay with me 

My dearest friend

Side by side

Let’s talk and send those brooding clouds down

Down yonder beyond the peaked mountaintops 

And give the pearly sky its rightful place

Things are easier when you’re near

I smile at the folk about me

I seem to see this tree some odd taller

I go and hear these voices just something softer

 I ask too much; the clouds can stay

 I need not advice, no, not today

 Take away the sweep, the water, the birds for all I care

Just stay with me, 

My dearest friend, 

A moment longer. 

That’s all I ask.

Simon Jones is a sophomore at DePaul University, studying Philosophy. He focuses mostly on longer prose and plays but occasionally dabbles in poetry when he isn’t intimidated by it. He’s had but one play, “Garbage, Feces, and Blood,” sent in for competition and one movie, “A Day in the Life of Carlyle Fitch,” currently in production.