The Tree
© R. Malcolm Brown, Jr.

There was a giant tree

Its branches silhouetted

Against the red sky

Little light remains

Sunset on its way today

Darkness comes this day

I am reminded

As light's last rays-photons that

Filter through the boughs

Shimmering leaves cast

Their long, lingering shadows

Into the abyss

Hope reigns high, this light

So magnificently beamed

Into that deep trench

Will forever reign

Amongst all that come to view

This giant humble tree

May 23, 1994

Driving back from Pampa on May 19, and after reading Elaine Ledbetter's inspiring account of Some Keys to Poetry, the thought of a giant tree on the horizon first popped into the author's mind. It could not be forgotten! Then in the quiet and beautiful environment of home, these thoughts simply gelled into this, the first poem he wrote.