Just One Tree

Just One Tree  

in the spirit of resilience  

I am just one tree—  

so why do I bend beneath  

the widening weight of the world,  

scooping up the burdens

as if my slender branches  

were built to carry it all?  

I am just one tree—  

so why do I toil in my mind,  

trying to make sense 

and map some meaning  

onto this tangled, luminous,  

achingly beautiful world? 

I am just one tree—  

so why do I whisper yes,  

again and again,  

to every urgent call 

or fierce storm  

that rattles my core?  

I am just one tree.  

But—  

I remember now:  

I am not alone.  

I rise in a living grove,  

roots braided with yours,  

my leaves singing summer into being,  

then releasing autumn’s mosaic  

into the waiting earth.  

My breath rides the wind  

to meet yours.  

My stillness belongs  

to something vast.  

I am just one tree—  

but I belong here.  

I can rest,  

held in the chorus of life,  

and it is enough.

Poem by Laura Loescher
Photo by Johannes Plenio