Recorded - Between January - June 2018. Composed by myself. Instruments used - vocals, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, [performed by my good friend Sam] bowed upright bass

Last summer this guitar part came to me while sitting outside, and for a long time it was shelved. During winter break, when a few friends of mine and I formed a short-lived group, I asked one of them if he would want to play an upright bass part I'd write for him. He agreed, and after that initial recording session between myself on guitar - and him on the upright - it got shelved again. I revised the poem in the spring, and added the landscape at the end just recently.

So, here's the spoken word piece that came out of it all. I've never really done anything like this before, and I almost never write poetry anymore x.x (that'll change when I take a poetry course I signed up for my writing minor). But it's just a little thing that takes the concept of trees and nature, and turns it into a metaphor for human life.


The poem itself:

"Do trees wilt, or rot throughout the days?
When they fall, have they collapsed, or passed away?
Seems like every time one goes down, no one is around to hear its final wail
Are we just like trees, in this way?
Do we, too, wilt? Or rot throughout the days?

Birds - they live in trees, without having to give much in return
No rent, no rules - just don't destroy the being that gives them itself
A tree gives itself for all of the animals, who shelter throughout its bark, as it stands content in its breezy sway -
For what?
Here we are, worrying about how much life we need to give to one another
Why can't we just be the best trees for our birds?


Trees breathe out our breath, as we breathe in theirs
No communication is needed to perform this business - yet the exchange is everlasting
It is ever present, and so, so simple
No debts involved as well - just resources for life; plenty of life
And here we are, annoyed we are not yet paid
For the service and business we conduct to our debtors.


Trees must wilt away! They're too innocent to rot throughout the days
They give themselves for an honorable death
Going throughout each day without a care for how to stay happy
But as we go throughout each day, we falter more
We tend to rot, slowly on
Rot throughout the days."