Dylan Thomas and The Old Oak Tree

I recently wrote a poem following a walk in Tollcross Park, Glasgow. It doesn't require any interpretation and is rather unsophisticated, but nevertheless it encapsulates my mood that day.

The Old Oak Tree

Sitting under the old oak tree
Lilting branches shelter me
From the scorching midday sun
A gentle, cooling breeze
An occasional fleeting hum
The sound of roaming bees
Radiant flowers, birds and trees
So much beauty, I can hardly breathe
Wispy clouds dot the sky
I close my eyes and sigh
For the first time in a long time
I'd experienced real serenity
Sitting under the old oak tree

Over the last few years I've become rather fond of poetry, and adore Kipling's If, with which most people are familiar, and Dylan Thomas's Clown in the Moon.


Clown in the Moon

My tears are like the quiet drift
Of petals from some magic rose;
And all my grief flows from the rift
Of unremembered skies and snows.

I think, that if I touched the earth,
It would crumble;
It is so sad and beautiful,
So tremulously like a dream.

Unbelievably, he was just fourteen when he penned that!

I recall one morning a taxi driver in Swansea telling me that his father, also a taxi driver, frequently found Dylan Thomas asleep in one of the cabs which were, apparently, parked next to the Uplands Tavern, where Dylan drank. "They used to kick him out...shit in his pants and everything", I recall him saying.

“I hold a beast, an angel, and a madman in me, and my enquiry is as to their working, and my problem is their subjugation and victory, down throw and upheaval, and my effort is their self-expression.” - Dylan Thomas