In my Music Notebook...

Great Trees
Poem by Wendell Berry (1934-2026)
Music by Mary Alice Amidon

Slowly, slowly, they return
To the small woodland let alone
Great trees, outspreading and upright,
apostles of the living light.
Patient as stars, they build in air
Tier after tier a timbered choir,
Stout beams upholding weightless grace of song,
A blessing on this place.
They stand in waiting all around,
Uprisings of their native groun,
Dow-comings of the distant light
Theyare the advent they await.
Receiving sun and giving shade,
Their life's a benefaction made,
And is a benediction said over the living and the dead.
In fall their brightened leaves released,
Fly down the wind and we are pleased 
to walk on radiance, amazed.
​Oh light come down to earth, be praised.