THE SEQUOIA GIGANTIA
I am the oldest and the biggest thing That lives—a link forever lengthening, That binds the vanished THEN fast to The fleeting NOW. I grew— Each ’circling ring bespoke a year, Recording there My prospering—or marked perchance Some hindering of circumstance. This towering shaft in armored front Of thickest bark, has borne the brunt Of frost and flame; it has endured Through countless plagues and is inured To all the ravagings Of crawling things.
My grizzled head has glimpsed the wax And wane of comets and the tracks Of trailing meteors; and I Have watched across the sky Of time, Young nations rise and reach their prime And then grow dim again. I was a sturdy sapling when Gray Egypt reared the slave-hewn stones That hearsed the bones Of Rameses; and full two thousand folds and more Had sealed my red heart’s inmost core When He drew breath— The Christ of little Nazareth.
I am the oldest and the biggest thing That lives—a link forever lengthening, That binds the vanished THEN fast to The fleeting NOW.
I’ve kept my long-established place And I am solid—crown to base; My heart is sound, my bole is straight, My limbs hang with an even weight, I do not sag and there is no Near gully where the freshets flow To undermine my roots. God planned It so, and by his grace I’ll stand Against the centuries still. So will I fill My destiny— To be A messenger—to carry on, to give Tomorrow’s children who shall live When this fair present’s passed away, The legend of my yesterday.