The Tree That Reaches Toward the Sky

A single tree
rises at a slant
and at last reaches upward.
It is bent by the wind,
and at the same time
it is a gesture toward the sky.
Everything on the ground
is low.
Person, horse, and house
lower themselves
as they endure the wind.
Yet the tree alone,
even as it lowers itself,
still turns upward.
It goes on, bent.
If it cannot go straight,
it goes
even bent.
That is
the posture of life
that remembers what is above,
even in the wind.
In the heart of each person brought low,
there is
a branch like that.