background image
258
all afternoon. The musings
of the tree, on one calm day.
Now agitation up high;
below, not a leaf moves. Now
a breeze pours through the whole tree
and it rattles -- the polished
leaves clash stiffl
y together.
Is all this movement purely
decorative. Is a leaf
normally agitated,
or still; or is this movement
needful to the tree's workings.
Are the movements troubles. Or
merely the life of the tree --
neither necessary nor
irrelevant; its queenly
life -- not indiff erent,
its impartial experience....
Three times I had the same dream
about this tree, in boyhood.
But I must explain -- the trunk
for all its harshness, its lack
of fi ne structure, mere rocky
crevices and ridges, still
was vulnerable, of course --
a fungus got into it
near the point where the branches
arch up -- the bark turned spongy
and brown, a depression formed.
The affl
iction seemed to me
dangerous; I was distressed.
A fl uid like clean water
seeped from the place. Yesterday