The Poet

Hail to thee,
Oldest of all that lives,
Tallest of all that grows.
We bow before thee, 0h towering steeple.
Your beauty touches the sky.
Your limbs stretch upward to kiss the gods.

Mighty cathedral cast your shadow over the forest.
Let your feet dance among the sparkling ferns.
Let your roots embrace the mountain stream.

What mystery lies in a pine cone that the tallest of all trees
Should spring forth from the smallest of all seeds.

Damn! Cursed to crawl beneath your roots,
Did the snakes of the world envy your long life?

Overnight
Devastated
Wasteland
Crime of all crimes.

What fool would cut down the most spiritual of all?
Only one fool, man, the most brilliant of all thinkers,
Man, blessed with knowledge, but cursed with a free will.

Oh bleeding forest, your barren and gnarled stumps
Serve as tombstones, relics of the life
That scraped the sky.