live thy life young old
summer rich then autumn changed
trunk bough naked strength
The Oak
Live thy Life,
Young and old,
Like yon oak,
Bright in spring,
Living gold;
Summer-rich
Then; and then
Autumn-changed
Soberer-hued
Gold again.
All his leaves
Fall’n at length,
Look, he stands,
Trunk and bough
Naked strength.
The Oak as published in Demeter and other poems by Alfred Tennyson (Macmillan: London, 1889).
I have never seen the redwoods or sequoias of California but I have fallen for the live oaks of the southern coast lands.
According to Wikipedia, Its native range begins in southeast Virginia, and then continues south in a narrow band through North Carolina along the coast to the interior South Carolina coast, where its range begins to expand farther inland. The range of live oak continues to expand inland as it moves south, growing across southern Georgia and covering all of Florida south to the northernmost Florida Keys.
We have found a trail through a grove of live oaks where the trees line the path and reach up in a grander church than any I have ever been in.
They are old, silent and somehow, ooze strength and power.
Here before we got here and they will be here after we have left.
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