a yellow pillar of fire

 

Our Gingko

we do have a favorite tree

at our North Carolina home,

a double-trunked ginkgo

that we planted about 1980,

each trunk now maybe eight inches in diameter,

rising near fifty feet toward the sky,

it is in autumn that the tree

can overwhelm any of us 

who experience its transformation

into a pillar of yellow fire,

that pillar can captivate the eyes of any casual passerby

and transform them into a disciple of its beauty,

as I parent, and grandparent,

and when I taught,

I regularly realized that each child

is a center of the universe,

and deserves the centering of the gravity

of attention, love, care upon them,

so too does the ginkgo

deserve to be seen, known, celebrated,

for it endures long past others in its family,

it almost casually stands at attention

and sings to the eye

of what beauty is all about.

by Henry H. Walker

October 30, ‘26