Revered figure, say, among trees with staff (5,9)
I believe the answer is:
elder statesman
'revered figure' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I don't see?
'say among trees with staff' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'say' could be 'state' (synonyms) and 'state' is located in the answer.
'trees' could be 'elders' (elder is a kind of tree) and 'elders' is located in the answer.
'staff' could be 'man' (as in staffing or manning a particular place) and 'man' is present in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for elder statesman that I've seen before include "Wise old politician" , "Experienced politician" , "veteran politician - with 17d" , "member with gravitas" , "John Major?" .)