Sunday, April 25, 2010

Among by Gary Snyder from Axe Handles

Few Douglas fir grow in these pine woods

One fir is there among south-facing Ponderosa Pine,


Every fall a lot of little seedlings sprout

Around it –


Every summer during long dry drouth they die.

Once ever y forty years or so

A rain comes in July.


Two summers back it did that,

The Doug fir seedlings lived that year


The next year it was dry,

A few fir made it through.

This year, with roots down deep, two live


A Douglas fir will be among these pines


at he 3000-foot level

north of the south fork

of the Yuba river


-----

As an instructor I've always felt I'm sorting through my students
over the decades to find those fir's that last.



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