The Fig Tree It’s the biggest fig tree in California People get off the train to take pictures of it Children play around its shady umbrella Animals burrow inside its mammoth confines — amethystmagazine.org/2019/05/13/the-fig-tree-a-poem-by-mark-tulin/
The Fig Tree – a poem by Mark Tulin
It’s the biggest fig tree in California
People get off the train to take pictures of it
Children play around its shady umbrella
Animals burrow inside its mammoth confines
The sky rains on it and the sun gives it light
The homeless have a place to shelter
Its ecological system is vast
Its branches extend a full city block
Its roots are written in calligraphy
It can ask the eternal question
It spreads open like the book of answers
It transcends nature and primordial man
It is the symbol for a universal sisterhood
It is the Tao
It understands the way.
Crow On The Wire 
Nice
Thanks LA!!
Wow! A stunning tree and terrific poem taking in all the elements of the tree and what they ultimately stand for. Love it!
Thank you, Annika.
Congratulations on your publication in Amethyst Review. I particularly appreciate the message of “The Fig Tree” at this point in time because for the path month or so, every time I drive to work, I’m seeing great swaths of trees being cut down (or should I say decimated, destroyed?). It hurts me every time I see it.
Thank you, Liz. Yes, it is sad to see that. Here in Santa Barbara there’s more appreciation for trees. There’s a big Oak that grows in the middle of an iHop. For the most part, shops and homes are built around the tree.
I wonder if the fact that our trees aren’t as old as those in California might have something to do with it. New Hampshire and Vermont were all forest before the first settlers came and cleared most of the forests for farming. The farms petered out, people left, and the forests reclaimed the land. Now we’re clearing back to cutting down the forests again.
Sounds cyclic. Santa Barbara is one of those little cities that never seems to change, sometimes to a fault.
Loved the poem, Mark, and the way it slowly expands on the tree’s significance – like the spreading canopy. Wonderful photo too
Thank you. The tree’s an absolute marvel.