The Fiddler and the Tree

By William Starkey

Down the winding road went he,

The Fiddler with his tree,

He’d chopped it from a hill nearby

When drinking down some tea.

The leaves were gold and bristles flowed

As down the path went he,

Whose beard did sway?

Whose branches swayed?

The Fiddler and his tree.

One night as still he trudged on down

That road that winded on,

The Fiddler sang a merry song

By dinner’s calling drum.

He sang and sang, till down there rang

The leaves of poplar tree

And clanged they on the cobblestones

That coursed throughout the land;

The land that traced the Fiddler

By light of crescent moon.

These leaves: the Fiddler snatched then up

And saw by two’s and three’s

That song he’d sung upon the road

When dinner’s drum had called.

Thence afterwards he kept the leaves,

But threw the tree away,

For carved he also afterwards

A fiddle for his song.

William Starkey

Author of A String of Words

William Starkey lives in Idaho where the grass is white and the trees are green. His writing life began some years ago when he was around the age of eleven. Shortly after, his poetry career also began. Even longer after this, he became a true believer in Christ Jesus. He prefers large libraries to small libraries (and computers at extravagant tables to search, learn, and increase his knowledge and love of the Bible and the Lord), and he has frequently found dictionaries to be useful tools throughout his short life. Books are a main part of his everyday routines and music is not far behind, though behind all this is a motive to write that is a fire which cannot be doused. He writes for the Lord in any way he can, whether that means through poetry, prose, or just plain writing. He hopes to one day live in a large house containing mostly books, coffee makers, vending machines, and a godly family who loves and obeys God with the fervency not formerly known to them, but given to them.