The Village in the Tree - a cautionary tale

1. In Pursuit of Truth

I told the story widely

Of the Village in the Tree

So widely that it seemed to some

To have veracity

Debates arose and there were those

Who said "No!", and yet

Some said "Well ...

Arboreal

Settlement

In pursuit of human betterment

May be true -

This lowly fool may be a savant yet!"

They took me off to see

A Doctor of Philosophy

Who sat down

And with a frown

Sought to know,

With eyes aglow

The story of the Village in the Tree

I told him that it was not true

Into an instant rage he flew

“How dare you venture an opinion

When one in all the land and kingdom

Arbiter of light and truth

Recipient of approbation

Bestowed by Royal Proclamation

Shall weigh the matter and expound

Where the font of truth be found”

He sucked his teeth and paced the room

From morning light 'till evening gloom

Finally he turned to me ...

"'Tis known by all for a certainty

That in a Universe so wide

As to conceal its farthest side

All that excites the mind of Man

Is somewhere to be found - I can

Enumerate the panoply

Of bounteous serendipity

Of miraculous discovery

So by the power granted me

I declare the Village in the Tree

The essence

The epitome

Of guaranteed veracity!”

Woe is me

My simple fable simply told

Inexplicably enrolled

In the illustrious company

of Pythagoras and Archimedes

2. Origins

Among the tales of antiquity

None rarer may be found

Than the fable (none are able

to dispute its authenticity)

Of the Village in the Tree

The tree from fabled seed had grown

Hybridized, of unique genome

Baobab and Sycamore

Joshua and Bristlecone

Oaken-hearted

Poplar-ised

Mystic and eternal

Yggdrasil itself

Could not be the equal

Of the tree that we envision

At the center of our fable

Whence came people to the tree?

How were they able

To construct a village

Nestle it in verdant green

Hang it in the place between

The rootstock far below

And the clouds that with the sun do glow

And hide the crown in misty glory

This falls not in the scope

Of my story

Nor can I explain

The reservoirs that catch the rain

The cunning plans that irrigate

Exotic crops - the tools of yore

Forged without an earthy ore

Yet able to facilitate

Works of carpenter and more

Those of civil engineer

Performed with muscle sweat and little more

Than that which happened to be near

Though hidden by the mists of time

These practicalities

Arranged in perfect order

(Like sixteen types of quark

And spools of super-string

Mystically supporting

The shape of everything)

Needs-must be as real

As the vision in our eye

The crystal-clear impression

Of the Village in the Sky

3. The Village in the Sky

The Village in the Sky?

Well might the gentle reader cry

Protesting - yet we don't forsake

More correctly, we have not forsook

The title writ upon the spine

And the cover of the book

Our tale is still arboreal

Confusion is ephemeral

Our persistent theme will be

The Village in the Tree

The perspective of observers

Is differentiated

Compared to that of those within

The realm investigated

Then we are not surprised

That the Village in the Tree

Is known by those that live therein

Quite contrarily

As the Village in the Sky

"Point made and noted

Please pass on

To a point of relevancy"

Yet gentle reader we must dwell

Awhile upon this piquancy

For in this matter by and by

The fate of the Village in the Sky

Shall be seen to have been chosen

Inadvertently

By the naive determination

Of the villagers not to be

The Village in the Tree

Let me explain …

4. Heterodoxy

Earlier in our narrative

I took care to explain

That the origin of all

Is something quite arcane

Please do not presume to think

Such ignorance is mine alone

For the dwellers in the tree

All were equally at sea

That is, they had as little grasp

Of their own antiquity

As that afforded you or me

Ignorance begets a world

Of bright imagination

Untrammeled by the tiresome bounds

Of factual limitation

Where even grubby tramps may dare

To believe themselves to be

Unjustly disinherited

Royal progeny

Subjected to the will

Of long-term infatuation

It is possible

That a population

May believe themselves to be

That which they are clearly not

On outside investigation

The entire habitation

Of the Village in the Tree

Proved to be

In such a shameful spot

Not to put too finer point

On our prognostication

The villagers upon the tree

Shared the same hallucination

In their naive estimation

The tree from clouds was suspended

Roots to the base were appended

Merely for decoration?

Thus "Village in the Sky are we"

Proudly declaimed the majority

And violent the strife

Bitter the animosity

T'ward any with the temerity

To wish to be

The Village in the Tree

Complex inferiority

Incrementally

Abandoning its principles

Deserting historicity

Descending imperceptibly

To general mediocrity

Grants assent

Once will is bent

To the general will

And even Sayers of the nay

Cast up their hands

Say "What the hey -

Village in the Sky are we”

Despite abandoned certainty

Of the nature of reality

5. Aside

Finally the pump is primed

We look within and there we find

Within the mill blessed grist

Now perhaps as trees may tower

Our narrative

Our parody

Our flight of moral fantasy

As if emerging from the mist

Shall flower

6. The Council

"After due deliberation

We hereby make our proclamation"

(It is understood

That is, we understand

We in the Council chamber stand,

That is, we in it stood)

Pausing for effect dramatic

The Council Leader - rarely static

Raised his arms in supplication

To conclude the great oration

"No longer we

As the center of philosophy

Accept the premise wrongly planted

Of dependency upon the tree

Though we nestle in its bough

The tree in its entirety

Does not assure prosperity

Its nether regions then as now

Encumbering our sacred vow

To be free

Free of earthly mundane ties

Free to float into the skies

Free to choose our destiny"

At this all in attendance rise

Giving vent to joyful cries

When once order was restored

The Leader motioned with his sword

(The ceremonial sword of office

Worn at times of greatest need

So that to the Leader

All should pay the closest heed)

He motioned with his sword

To introduce august and loyal

The servant of his Lord

The Philosopher - Royal

7. The Royal Philosopher

The great man rose

A silence fell

"On matters of philosophy

Fact and practicality

As the prime authority

All defer to me"

Privately I must confirm

His hubris and pomposity

Excelled all other quality

As you may foretell

If you know him well

"'Tis well known that gravitation

Is the proven emanation

In proportion to the rank

Of heavenly procession

Therefore 'tis plain the force that pulls

The tree upright from ground to crown

From the Sun proceedeth down

And to our dire consternation

Shackled to the ground are we

By the rootstock of the tree

And this accursed manacle

Obstructs our dream of floating free

We must act at once" said he

"Without prevarication"

"Added to the sacrifice

Of eager volunteers

Shall be heroic products

Of Master Engineers

By sweat and toil and diligence

And labor of the Prole'

We'll cut the foul umbilicus

And rise together whole

Finally we shall be free

No longer Village in the Tree

We shall fly and own the view

Of horizons that are new"

"Aye" said the villagers

Held within the thrall

"Aye" said the villagers

They said it one and all

"Aye" said the villagers

They fairly shook the hall

(Not a member I

Of that fateful quorum

Merely to record the day

Sat I in the forum)

"Now should the work begin!"

Though in fact it had begun

In secrecy some years before

According to the noble law

Affording secrecy to kings,

Initiative in noble things

Since the work could not be hid

T'was time to guide the common mood

In the path of common good

That all may share the pleasure

That all may share the pain

Perhaps more importantly

That all may share the blame

"In anticipation of your every need

And through divination of decisions now agreed

Our most Royal Patron

Wisely did proceed

Without hesitation

To commence the deed

Providing liberation - to my words give heed

You thought the project just begun

When in fact 'tis nearly done!"

Thus spoke the Royal Philosoph'

And took his hat and glasses off

8. Anticipation

The villagers were gathered yet

Their robust outburst of assent

Still hanging in the air

A tremor stiffened every hair

The village creaked

The village swayed

Like a fiddle poorly played

The villagers rushed to see

The cause of instability

"Feel the tugging of the sun

See its grasping rays

How wondrous is the Cosmos

In all its knowing ways"

Assured the Royal Philosoph'

And took his hat and glasses off

(Earlier he'd put them on)

The villagers implored the sun

To complete their levitation

But the village and the tree

Hastened its gyration

A distant roar of splintering

Warned of separation

Now heroic products

Of Master Engineers

On each other gnashed

'Twas painful to the ears

Meeting in the middle

Where once there had been trunk

Nothing more was heard

Than an awful "thunk"

9. Gratification

Contrary to the expectation

Of all gathered there

The Village in the Tree

Descended through the air

Tumbling most gracefully

The Village in the Tree

Was briefly Village in the Sky

But lacking competence to fly

Became the Village on the Ground

Devastated all around

By good fortune I had grasped

The final leaf as it fluttered past

The final view will stay with me

The face of mute disbelief

As the Philosoph' observed my leaf

Then fell toward infinity

Yet I am sure that while he fell

He assured himself that all was well

Reality, though defective

Would at the end be self-corrective

Would align canonically

With most Royal Philosophy

These musings, though most comforting

Reprieve of sentence could not bring

Realisation - out of time

Marked the end of a paradigm

10. Epilogue

A tree within a forest fell

None survived to note it well

If your tree should start to fall

Will anyone survive at all

Survive to tell what fantasy

Destroyed your Village in a Tree