A TREE!

A Tree Knelt In Praise
By Hamza Yusuf

I know that I shall never see
A poem that bows quite like our tree

A tree who like us loved to pray
In adoration every day

A tree who humbly knelt in praise
To God and never chose to raise

Itself above the other trees
Instead remained as if on knees

A tree who gave our scholars shade
And never asked that it be paid

A tree whose needles never hurt
But gently fell upon the dirt

A tree whose worth cannot be told
Or ever lent or bought with gold

A tree who showed us all its height
With God by bowing with delight

It taught us all to clearly see
A Garden lies beneath a tree

And then it showed us with a sigh
That trees, like us, must also die

In an age of folly, play and mirth
A tree has died with brow on earth

-Hamza Yusuf / March 2005