Share   Print  Save   Become a Fan

Because there are so many and they need to know that even survival is victory and there is beauty in a graceful strength!

But as every tree knows it's about where you place your roots!

I was a young and tender shoot
Hugging my mother, reaching for the sky.
And you crushed me under your foot
Grinding my face in the dust and the rocks.

Afraid I dug my roots deeper and grew a different way.
And I survived

I was a willowy sapling
Dancing with joy, the wind in my hair.
And you bent me and stripped me
Twisting and tearing 'til the sap flowed free.

In pain I thrust deeper still and grew a different way.
And I survived.

I was a young tree
Growing tall, claiming my place in the sun.
And you cut me down
Tearing at my flesh 'til I could stand no more.

But my roots remained and I grew a whole new way.
And I survived.

And now my roots have found the hidden stream
The rock that anchors, the cleft that hides.
I tower high above you, arms upraised to the heavens.
Not as I could have been, not as I should have been
Yet clothed in beauty with a graceful strength.

I look around and you are but dust in the wind
But I ... I survive.

D.J. Ludlow Copyright 1996
(From the "Life Lines Anthology)