Once a time near mountain base
There stood a valley calm and warm.
It’s quiet wind and river face
Gave life that many plants be born.
One afternoon a tiny seed
Fell in the ground deep in the dirt
And after days of getting need
A tiny plant rose young unhurt.
It lived through storms and world shakes
Its roots reached deep below.
Yet from atop its leaves would quake
Its base ran too and frow.
As each day passed it grew and grew
And soon stood great and tall.
Its roots ran deeper than it knew
It would not be quick to fall.
As time passed by young trees appeared
Their mother was the first.
She gave them all she held so dear
Her strength always near to burst.
The young trees grew as their mother frayed
Her leaves falling to the ground.
Yet stronger than she knew was made
The roots from struggles found.
While weak and hurt and wondering
The mother tree kept giving.
Through wind and storm and thundering
She clung to keep on living.
Today she stands with strength and beauty
While her insides seem to fade.
Yet we can’t forget, it is our duty
To remember the roots she made.
Such strength will have but little fade
In the eyes of the sapling youth.
So here she stands at the mountain base
A tree filled with beauty and truth.
Jacob Gittins 