our deal with the maidenhair tree

 

The Ginkgo and Us

the ginkgo knows itself,

is true to itself,

enduring while all of its closest cousins

no longer live to leaf and be themselves,

the ginkgo made a deal with people,

and, surprisingly, we followed through,

not for the food it would give us,

nor for the wood we would take from it,

rather, the wholeness of its beauty

led some Chinese Buddhist monks near a thousand years ago

to cultivate it in their garden and preserve the surrounding forest,

others of us have awoken enough to see it true,

we plant it, and appreciate it,

such a partnership with the natural world of plant and animal

seems all too rare for the human species,

rather we enslave animals to be our food,

or domesticate them to be our pets,

to leave the wolf and the whale alone to just be themselves

is not yet consensus,

we domesticate plants to please us with their foliage and their flowers

or fill our bellies with their seeds,

nevertheless, we have found space in our world for the ginkgo:

I bought a ginkgo for my wife’s birthday decades ago,

in October one low branch yellows early,

now, as November comes rushing at us,

sweet yellow slowly transforms the soft green

of the flat disks of leaves,

they who have worked all season with the Sun

to remember this year and prepare for next,

the color of the Sun works its way toward the trunk

as it steadily prepares for a full blaze of transcendence,

an enlightenment of celebration of this year’s life well-lived,

I see within this maidenhair tree the hope

that consciousness ignites in me

that this year’s life, well-lived,

continues into tomorrows we believe in but cannot yet know,

may all of our final days blaze like the ginkgo,

gratuitous acts of beauty

before the passing that comes upon us all.

by Henry H. Walker

October 29, ‘20