Thursday 18 January 2018

A Black Birch in Winter

Image result for black birch tree in winter



A Black Birch in Winter - Richard Wilbur

You might not know this old tree by its bark,
Which once was striate, smooth, and glossy-dark,
So deep now are the rifts that separate
Its roughened surface into flake and plate.

Fancy might less remind you of a birch
Than of mosaic columns in a church
Like Ara Coeli or the Lateran
Or the trenched features of an agèd man.

Still, do not be too much persuaded by
These knotty furrows and these tesserae
To think of patterns made from outside in
Or finished wisdom in a shriveled skin.

Old trees are doomed to annual rebirth,
New wood, new life, new compass, greater girth,
And this is all their wisdom and their art—
To grow, stretch, crack, and not yet come apart.

2 comments:

  1. I think I actually met a very aged black birch this week during a walk in Descanso Gardens, La Canada Flintridge, CA. Will take this poem back there and ask the botanists on staff to confirm. Wow! Ginny in SoCal USA

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