Family Tree

My family visited the Angel Oak near Charleston, SC this past week and this poem was a product.

Family Tree
(at the Angel Oak)

A stable trunk grows like the ground,
expanding its roots
through new soil and territories,
but still unable to provide
a solid foundation for every limb
and every leaf.
So the branches grow;
some high into the air,
toward the perfect light of the sun,
only to crack and fall
and decay
from a winter weight
or a summer swirl of a tornado
or a steady hurricane force.
Other appendages return to the earth
to stabilize
and provide anchor
for the heady ones.

-Robert L. Jackson

http://www.angeloaktree.org/01_DSC3519-raw2.jpg