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The Trees
by Mary Oliver

Do you think of them as decoration?

Think again.

Here are the maples, flashing.
And here are the oaks, holding on all winter
to their dry leaves.
And here are the pines, that will never fail,
until death, the instruction to be green.
And here are the willows, the first
to pronounce a new year.

May I invite you to revise your thoughts about them?
Oh, Lord, how we are all for invention and 
advancement!
But I think
it would do us good if we would think about 
these brothers and sisters, quietly and deeply.

The trees, the trees, just holding on
to the old, holy ways.

You can find this poem in Evidence.