Trees

 

There’s something about trees and me 

An attraction , a drawing near 

From single spreading chestnut

Or draping weeping willow

To close grown forest pine 

Even cut down made into fire-awaiting log piles 

 

Something about the texture 

The size and grandeur of a stately oak

Or the perfect shape of cultured bonsai

 

Leaf blowing

Trunk swaying

Fragile sapling

Long growing

Snow holding 

Season watching 

Trees

 

I wonder what they have seen over the years

What secrets they hold

The birds that have nested 

The people who have sheltered

What storms they have weathered

 

There is something of awe and majesty

The sheer size of a sequoia

The microcosmic world encompassing a tree

 

Encircling and covering

Overarching

Overshadowing

Surrounding 

Breeze swaying 

Shelter – providing 

Noise cancelling 

Intertwining 

Trees

 

And here in the forest I have stood

In awe – inspired silence

Inside heavy stillness

With heart-stopping expectation

With here and there 

The drilling of a woodpecker 

The scuttle of a squirrel

The screeching of an owl

The call of a jay

The dancing sway of pine

The autumn fall of leaves

The spreading majesty of centuries

Of oak , or elm , or cedar 

 

I hear God deeply in this cathedral of the forest

I hear myself, my heartbeat , my breathing

I feel the heavy stillness

The still small voice

Which calls me back again and again to the One who made 

Trees

 

 

                                                               John nutall March 2018