Memories bubbling like a rolling river, babbling along its way.
Changing course, moving stones, its power has its sway.
There stands a tree with strength and height casting shadows
changing lives and providing hope.
The tree is home amongst the water, grounded within its grasp.
With roots deep down, forced through rocky ground
its branches reaching to touch many others.
This brook would not be the one which shaped us
without the tree to guide us.
As many stones were carried along the broken path,
strawberry flowers drifted in the air towards the forest man.
For all who traveled past its trail, who sheltered among its leaves,
we will always remember the tree that stopped us and rejoiced to set us free.
The tree fell today, carried away by the brook but in its wake
many more strawberry flowers float and kernels of wisdom dwell.
A tree once rooted in a well now flies among the angels for all to see.
Just yesterday rooted in the brook and now dancing among clouds but forever in our hearts.
Sarah Butland