The Tree Of Life stood when Eden was a garden of God,
It was there as a sapling as the first of mankind trod,
In it's branches to the Tree Of Knowledge the serpent tempted Eve,
And Adam in frustration had stripped it's fruit when made to leave.
Back then the branches reached out to grab Heaven's sky,
And the roots dove down to drink Heaven's rivers dry,
With bark so tough it can withstand the onslaught of time,
Leaves dotted with life giving monthly fruit and roots in soil of lime.
The Tree of Life gave nourishment to the first animals God made,
And with the first flora and fauna it's roots nurtured and played,
Some say it's shoots later provided the planking for the Ark,
Others that many a magical item was made from it's bark.
The trunk is as huge around as a whale's stomach can be,
Leading way up the sky where it's branches move mysteriously,
And the leaves seem to whisper the secret of a forest sound,
Which Mother Nature hears and translates for creatures all around.
The sap it leaches into the soil is rich in nutrients and oils,
It lit the first of man's torches and soothed the ache of his toils,
And the rich red fruit it bore like the pomegranate would slowly harden,
From the seeds of which grew the trees of Gethsemane's garden.
The Tree Of Life had lived for many thousand years renewed,
Was self sustaining and rarely needed water nor hardly any food,
It had survived even the flood after forty day and night's,
And global warming, wars of man and many other blights.
It is said that Merlin's staff came from the fallen wood it shed,
And that against it's distant cousin Isaac Newton had laid his head,
That Rumi had sat under it whilst compiling his poetry,
And that C.S. Lewis had a wardrobe made from this very tree.
Colourful birds still nest in the uppermost layers of the cannopy,
Squirrels and insects run amock amongst the branches wild and free,
The roots of it reach for miles underground a network of energy,
At night it attracts hundreds of fireflies and glows for all to see.
The flowers in late Spring are like the lotus full and open aswell,
They smell sweet like jasmine and cast a strangely soothing spell,
The goats gather round the base but never try to strip it bare,
Even man in awe of it takes fond notice and precious care.
The Tree Of Life had God's breath blown directly into it true,
It now grows weary and doesn't hear Him as once it used to do,
The stars though still shine just out of reach of its highest tip,
So too the diamonds and gems in the lowest fertile ground's dip.
Mother Earth nurtured it and Mother Nature nursed it from the Dawn,
It shed it's leaves by Autumn but regrown them anew by Spring morn,
Renewed and ever changing in the cycle of life we cannot deny,
We too are rooted in the physical but reaching for the spiritual sky.
Battered by the winds and thirsting in the dryest drought,
It stands resolute a witness of the changing times no doubt,
This ancient marvel that over time has given hope to endure every hour,
Fills us with surety that we are all a lifeforce embued with God's power.
