In the forest a great tree has fallen,
Its once proud trunk, so straight and tall,
That stood firm and solid like the mountainside,
Lies broken, splintered on the cold earth.
It’s rotting corpse has rent a livid scar,
Across the fair face of the woods,
And the trees that thereabouts,
Had once their roots entwined,
Lean over their boughs and weep silently,
For the passing of one so great.
But look, for the sun shines through,
And bathes the forest floor with new light,
Where life stirs yet again and stretches up,
To claim its inheritance and own its time.
The tree has fallen but the forest lives on.
January 5th
