One Valley Oak
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This historic tree was part of California's pride...........located in the William B. Ide Adobe State Historic Park of my hometown
The day I died, a village cried
and tears washed to the river's side
I meant the world, to my survivors
A Valley Oak......yes, that was me...
A stately tree with history
They drew from me a sense of pride
Four hundred years, I had sheltered them
with limbs that reached up to the sky.
I stood my ground, through all the rain
They understood, my worth, my veins
ran deeper than the eye could see
FOUR HUNDRED YEARS!.....Yes, I was old !!
And blood turned cold the day I fell
You see, I was much more than Oak
I spoke for those who've long been gone.
I reigned beside this countryside
and watched the tribes beneath the sky
I saw the white men, take away
and claim the ground beneath me, found
And soon a way of life would end
And I would bend my boughs, to pray
Four hundred years, I've overlooked
a river bend, below my limbs
I watched the steamboats ferry men
and saw men die, and saw men rise
and saw men carry hope again
And those who came so long ago
would build a town that grew to know
how values and our valiant strides
are deep as roots, as mine that grew
I was not just a simple tree...
I had a place in history...
I sat beside a little house
One still a treasured artifact
Once built along the river's bend,
It now sits naked in my tracks
without the shade that I had lent
The man who lived here, led a state
The first to govern, in my shade
It is a fact that through the years
I've watched and shed a thousand tears
What will become of what is left?
A town is left, a state bereft
But facts can't change that I was here...
My roots hang tight to yesteryear
They've grieved, and shed their tears for me
when winds prevailed, and down I fell
I wish them well, and if I can
.....I'll try to surge from down within
perhaps one root will sprout, and tell
my leaves to find the breeze again
____________________________________________________
8/23/15
Inspired By Tree Personification Contest
Sponsor....Charlotte Puddifoot
Based on the actual tree that came down in my home town
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_B._Ide_Adobe_State_Historic_Park
Copyright © Carrie Richards | Year Posted 2015
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