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....
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.
A fl uid like clean water
seeped from the place. Yesterday
when I examined the trunk
I saw clearly, down one side,
the stain left by the fl uid;
though the spongy depression