This poem was inspired by the Methuselah tree, a bristlecone pine growing in the south west of the USA that's almost 5,000 years old.
There was just something awe inspiring about such an ancient creature, thinking about all the human history that has occurred while this tree has been sitting silently on its hill.
Methuselah
Ancient unblinking sentinel,
Born beneath the ageless sky.
Watching the days flicker past
In a blur of sun and stars.
A witness to time’s passing,
What wonders you have seen!
What changes have been wrought
As you sit atop your lonely hill.
Empires rise and fall like dominoes,
Civilisation spreads like a disease.
Little men shout their glory to the heavens
And vanish into history without trace.
The world fills with stories,
As these swarming, transient creatures
Populate reality with their own gods and monsters,
And make devils of each other.
Living at breakneck speed,
Come and gone in the blink of an eye.
Each fleeting second precious to them,
Yet so many wasted and lost forever.
But what do you care about such petty things
In your long march down the centuries.
They come and go as the sap rises and falls
And leave but fleeting marks upon the earth.