The Story of the Mountain and the Oak
Under the great dome of time
From deep in the slow moving earth
A mountain lifts its crest into the heavens
Sun and frost
Wind and rain
Soil makers
Working their ways
For trees, flowers grass and seeds
Feeder of birds and beasts
Day and night
Watcher of countless seasons
That arise and pass away
And the silent mountain stands
Nestled in soft soil
An acorn’s root goes deep
Slowly ever slowly
The promise that was held
Perfectly in the seed
Becomes a mighty oak
A home and pantry for the birds, for insects
And a multitude of tiny lives
A hopping place for squirrels
A place of shade for deer and fox and mice
And the great oak grows
And the beauty mountain stands in silence
Then came the hunters, acorn gatherers
Sacred Mountain worshipers
For ten thousand years they came
And they were happy
The workers of the land, they came
The cattlemen
The orchard men
The tenders of the vine
Fathers, mothers, children, pioneers
They came in waves
And flourished
And the Valley of the Moon held and fed them all
And the mighty oak was witness
And the mountain called Sonoma
Stood beside them in its beauty
Then came a man called Jack
With Charmain his beloved wife
A Beauty Ranch was born
Their place of happiness, hope and friendships
A cottage built
Books written
Vines planted heavy with fruit
A Big House rose amidst the redwoods
But alas, a great flame took the house away
One day Jack spoke to Charmain
And this is what he said
He said
“If I would beat you to it,
I wouldn’t mined if you laid my ashes on the knoll
where the children of the pioneers are buried.
and roll over me a red boulder
from the ruins of the Big House”
Then he too was taken
And the great oak saw it all
And the mountain called Sonoma stood in silence
Three hundred years
Maybe four
The old oak nears its passage
A child of some distant parent
The parent of a child
It now becomes
Passing an ancient linage
On into the future
So be our lives
We dwellers of the Valley
A chain of love and hope
From hand to hand be given
Recalling now and then
To offer up our gratitude
To these, the watchers of our lives
Our sacred guardians
This mighty oak
And this
The silent beauty mountain called Sonoma
by Michael Sheffield
copyright 2015
www.mountainandpine.com
Thanks to poet Michael Sheffield for sharing this poem, read by him at both the Jack London State Park oak tree planting and Sonoma Arbor Day, 2015.
