Blessing the Trees
She bought the land
for the w i d e n e s s of it,
not the trees.
But it was trees
that defined the land,
chopped it up
into lines and spaces
the eye could order.
She knew nothing of filberts,
or orchards, or the harvest of nuts.
All she knew was to
bless the trees,
o n e by o n e
by the laying on of hands.
The trees did
what they knew to do,
responding to her touch
with such an abundance of nuts
that it rained filberts all that fall.
They came to an understanding,
she and the trees,
a covenant of caring.
Blessings flow like water
over the land,
e x p a n d to contain
all time and eternity.
Lisa is an award-winning poet and the author of For Love of a Child: Stories of Adoption. She loves trees, children, words, strawberries, and puddles of sun. Lisa just moved to a house in the forest near Portland, Oregon, and serves on Segullah’s editorial board.
