Trees (written in 1980, while studying at Columbia U)

I am a tree receiving light

Or perhaps just an image of delight

I follow through on life's extensions

resulting in awareness of different dimensions

 

Where are the remnants of my rational power?

Perhaps I lost them as I ascended the tower

There I became imprisoned by tension

while I pondered, was logic my pension?

 

Now, I may feel alive and free 

Or sometimes as rooted as a tree

three hundred years old in all its splendor,

While I look at my heart and search for its mender

 

Do I truly love desire or care?

Is it only that I feel my cupboard base is bare?

When I dwell on spiritual elements compounded;

I remember that God has created men well-rounded.

 

Then reason declares desires and fears well-founded:

And I know everything is previously included and far ahead accounted.

Life's round of births and deaths, and beginnings do deceive some,

But the question remains, despite all, ... Is there an end to receive one?