Walking along Burma Trail this morning my eye was attracted to all the swamps. Beautiful swamps. And being at the height of summer they were lush and green as could be and, unlike most other summers at this time, they were full of water. My eye however focused on the trees: the trees surrounding the swamps at the margins, the dead trees, the reflections of trees and, the tree stumps. This all had me recall a poem that Parker J. Palmer shared last week – Carrie Newcomer’s poem – To Be Like a Tree.
“Ah, to be like a tree
With all its bent and unbent places,
A whole and holy thing
From its topmost twigs
To the deepest taproot
To all the good and graceful
Spaces between.”
Here are some photos of swamps. The complete poem is further below.
To Be Like A Tree
See how the trees
Reach up and outward
As if their entire existence
Were an elegant gesture of prayer.
See how they welcome the breath of spirit,
In all its visible and invisible forms.
See how the roots reach downward and out,
Embracing the physical,
The body and bones
Of its soul of earth and stone,
Allowing half its life to be sheltered
in the most quiet and secret places.
Oh, if I could be more like a tree on this Sunday morning,
To feel the breath of invisible spirit
Touch me as tenderly as a kiss on the forehead.
If I could courageously and confidently
Dig down into the dark
Where the ground water runs deep,
Where shelter and sanctuary
Can be had and held.
Ah, to be like a tree
With all its bent and unbent places,
A whole and holy thing
From its topmost twigs
To the deepest taproot
To all the good and graceful
Spaces between.
- Carrie Newcomer
