Looking Up At Leaves (1966)
Barbara Howes


No one need feel alone looking up at leaves.
There are such depths to them, withdrawal, welcomes,
A fragile tumult on the way to sky
This great trunk holds apart two hemispheres
We lie between. . . .Like water lilies
Leaves fall, rise, waver, echoing
On their blue pool, whispering under the sun;
While in this shade, under our hands the brown
Tough roots seek down, lily roots searching
Down through their pool of earth to an equal depth.
Constant as water lilies we lie still,
Our breathing like the lapping of pond water,
Balanced between reflection and reflection.






Questions
1. How can a tumult be fragile (see line 3)?
2. What does Howes mean when she says the tree's trunk holds apart two hemispheres?
Is the word being used literally or figuratively?
3. Does the last line have more than one literal meaning? (A double entendre)