Age Old Tree

Photo and inspiration for the poem from I Am An Age Old Tree.

A poem for your Friday afternoon. Just because :)


Age Old Tree


An age old tree stands in the desert,
is greeted by the blankness


of stars. What echoes, what remains,
what the branches say to each other.


They say nothing.
All are branches standing upward.


What seems to continue 
despite darkness, despite cold,


dampness, dusk, dust.
Perhaps we are all branches,


the standing upward our only way
of calling out into what we don't know,


can't remember, shouldn't have seen
as children. For beyond the throes of pain


lies a calm we can find
only with the heart open.


Once you have a heart,
you can remember where you are going.


An age old tree stands in the desert,
where snow begins to fall.