5/26/2008 - The Chestnut tree (tomorrow I am free)

On February 23 1944 Anne Frank wrote in her diary....from my favourite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind....as long as this exists, I thought, and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts I cannot be unhappy...

I read Annes diary as a 12 year old schoolgirl and it completely changed the way I think about people. I learned from Anne that people are the same all over the world, no matter about race or culture or colour, people have the same hopes, the same dreams and aspirations, the same weaknesses and failings to be sure. People hurt the same and they can be crushed in the same way.

Anne's voice rises up as the voice of the blackbird does each morning and evening, she has the gift of being able to communicate her inmost thoughts and perhaps more importantly her feelings and in sharing she has the power to change the way people regard and treat their fellow human beings, thank you Anne I salute you, and I have written a little poem which I hope honours you.

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THE CHESTNUT TREE (tomorrow I am free)

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This my chosen spot

I may lay me down

gaze can only upwrds be

filled afresh with hope

that grew upon my chestnut tree

tomorrow I am free

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No clouds in my sky

nor shadow troub'ling me

gracefully glides the seagulls

silvering droplets

sparkling on my chestnut tree

tomorrow I am free

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As long as this is so

and if my eye can see

my heart cannot then be sad

for me the sun shines

through my glistening chestnut tree

tomorrow I am free.