Angel Oak

1,500 year-old “Angel Oak” tree, Johns Island, SC – Photo by Lewis Carlyle

 

sweeping majesty
reigns sandy loams
half a million warm suns
drawn through filigree
tresses dressing in green
mighty live-oaken limbs
boughs exquisitely curling
through spiral paths piercing
veils misty with history

stalwart and ancient
deep drinking roots sink
into Gaia’s warm womb
where first shoot emerged
from the ocean teased ground
when Byzantium flowered
Muhammad gave prophecy
Mayans raised temples
and Europe fell darkened

wily it dodged fate when
siblings went kidnapped
for seafaring timbers
plantation laid millwork
courageous it stood against
one thousand hurricanes
scarred by grave wounds
but surviving the traumas
of wind and wave furies

and so it yet stands
on its perilous coast
beyond civilizations
past powerful dynasties
outlasting concepts
philosophy’s artifacts
testament to the abiding
endurance biology knows
as the sheer will to live