TREE

         I was a tree, tall slenderness in the middle of a meadow,
         but I had no namr for what I was.
         My leaves drank of the sunlight that streamed thtough them
         and set their green aglow, 
         My leaves danced in the wind, which made a harp of my branches,
         but I did not see or hear this.
         Waning days turned me brittle golden, 
         frost stripped me bare,
         snow blew about me during my long drowse,
         then orion hunted his quarry beyond this heaven
         and the sun swung north to blaze me awake,
         but none of this did I sense.

         And yet I marked it all, for I lived!
         Each cell within me felt in a secret way
         how the sky first shone aloud and afterward grew quiet,
         air gusted or whooped or lay dreaming,
         rain flung chill and laughter, water and worms did their
         work for my reaching roots,
         nestlings piped where I sheltered them and soughed,
         grass and dandelions enfolded me in richness,
         the earth stirred as the earth turned among the stars,
         each year that departed left a ring in me for rememberance.
         Though I was not aware, I was still in creation, and of it;
         thougt I did not understand, I knew I was tree!

                                Written by POUL ANDERSON
                                from the book "The Avatar"