Rings of know

I peer about the wood I know,
With trees I stand at station,
Warm light filters down on me,
Through canopies high relation;

The view mirrors for deposit,
Into my roving mind,
Collecting life's experience,
Building libraries with time;

Light plays upon the foliage,
That clings to the season,
We move toward the light,
In understood-unneeded reason;

The saplings of my youth,
Have grown in height and girth,
Not all survived surround me,
We'll all rejoin at dirt;

To those trees begot before me,
They highlight in my eye,
Still landmarks from my child's perspective,
Still towering toward the sky;

I train upon my favourite Oak,
A mighty elder stand,
Existing long before me,
It reigns upon the land;

This figure of securement,
That stood every storm,
Did guard me from youth's treachery,
And shouldered weather's scorn;

And now that I've grown skyward too,
And shed my childhood need,
What of the noble guardian,
Who gave with every deed;

Can I look beyond protector,
Look beyond the see,
And appreciate his entirety,
Including seed to me;

The sturdy Oak of childhood scenes,
Was once a sapling too,
Though I glean youth's persistent glint,
It once played in the nude;

Chapters of our lives,
Written formerly hide behind,
An opaque bark of settlement,
Severing history from this time;

We are the product of all before,
And only part of future's more,
Yet, to see ingredients of the potion,
Sovereign bits before the whole,
Tasty slices of experience,
Adds richness to the bole;

To image youth's revisit,
In stories often told,
Unwraps rings of perspective,
And brilliance to life dusted old;

It changes old's description,
In manifold ways,
Breathes intimate understanding,
Into once empty bays;

It starts when saplings yearn for light,
With eager stretching bold,
And listen to distraction,
The stories of the old;

What trickles entertainment,
One day floods understand,
And current's flow in youth,
Next forming knowing's pad;

The tree that grew before me,
Each new ring of know a band,
Of my father making whole,
My ideal of a man.