Beech Tree from TREES by Paul Armfield

I was surprised to discover that the trees of the forest have a hierarchy, the king is of course the oak, and the queen is the beech.
The word ‘book’ is derived from the word ‘beech’, as the first runic inscriptions were made on thin slivers of its wood, indeed the beech is the favoured tree for lovers to carve their initials and there are several arborglyphs to be found in the wood at Sibden Hill, they can last many decades, growing bigger and fainter. Elsewhere on the beech trees there are often many naturally appearing ‘eyes’ looking down on this early form of graffiti. I have written the song as if the beech tree bears witness to whole life stories as they are lived out beneath its branches as if written in a book. (Please don’t carve into trees, like cuts on your own flesh, they can be prone to infection and potentially harmful to the tree.)