An Oak's Quest

In a verdant haven of swaying branches and dappled light

An oak seedling broke firm ground

Its sap brimmed with such otherworldly vitality,

That its leaves were without choice:

They shone the most vibrant, gleaming green,

Radiating forcefully through spacetime

Conquering history’s darkest shadows

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The young oak now stands

Awkwardly, desperately, aiming at the sky

Its stem so meagre, pale, underwhelming

Yields to even the most trivial gust

Its branches barren, its leaves so rare

Trembling in the icy grip of winter’s frost

Susceptible to assaults from rodents

gnawing away with apathetic gazes

and the stranglehold of vines from deep below

devouring the very ideas of progress and beauty

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Yet, with the valiance of Odysseus, it stands

Resolved to seal is potential. Knowing, one day:

Its roots will grow the staunchest web, crudely woven

so it may hold stern, oblivious to the mightiest storms

Its awkward angles, its blemishes, shall turn

into deliberate, inimitable ornaments

Its stem becomes mighty, blazing a gnarled path to heaven

and effortlessly carrying its commanding crown of branches

twisting and turning into an oasis of lush magnificence

The hardship of decades, the blows and gusts

It knows it is them that will make it thus

​

True, one day this giant shall perish

But not before it has galvanized all

the ferns and grasses, the flowers and mushrooms

the bushes, trees, and dwellers of the forest

Before it has spread its acorns far and wide

And seen new generations awaken

To life’s adventures and a better world
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