“Now we enter the ancient wood.
In what wild forms the gnarled
and mossy boughs are twisted,
what a sensation of sacred repose.”
-Henry James Slack
The Ministry of the Beautiful,
“Conversation III: The Oak-wood,” 1850
“If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.”
-Hal Borland
Bristlecone pines are the oldest living trees on Earth. These magnificent trees are about 2,000 years old, relatively young considering in some areas they are 5,000 years old!
My mind and spirit are in awe of them. I can only imagine the history that these trees have witnessed, the ancient wisdom they could impart, and the stories they could tell!
Being in their presence is a sacred experience.
The bristlecone pines are resilient. They thrive in harsh conditions.
A lot can be learned from these beautiful trees.
A palo verde
is sunlit laughter
when Spring walks
desert ways;
A pepper tree is
a lace mantilla
through which the
moonlight plays…
The eucalyptus
has gypsy breeding
that laughs at wind and rain;
Gnarled sycamores sing
where canyons are deep,
a peace-filled, calm refrain…
But high on mountains,
the pines stand praying,
their voices whisper low
as they chant together
an ageless measure,
“Reach out and up, and grow!”
-Lorraine Babbitt
“Tree Portraits,” in Arizona Highways, September 1961
There are rich counsels in the trees.
-Herbert P. Horne
“As dawn breaks, my backlighted silhouette,
gnarled and twisted by forces that ebb and flow
across time and space, stands a silent watch.
My stark, misshapen, still rugged body
has adapted well to that over
which I have had no dominion.
Designated by design or default
as the chronicler of decades, centuries,
and millennia, I anchor time to space
on a subalpine bed of dolomite,
my wellspring of life.
With regards from an old Bristlecone Pine”
Excerpt of “To Whom It May Concern”, a poem by Frances Johnson.
