Apostles of the Living Light

I just finished cleaning the meetinghouse after a late concert tonight. It was a wonderful accapella harmony group who sang many spirituals and some beautiful traditional songs. They also sang a lovely Wendell Bery poem put to music. They sang it as an Earth Day gift. The last time I consciously celebrated Earth Day I was cutting blue circles and wildly innaccurate squiggly green continents out of construction paper (1989?) but this gorgeous poem about trees lifted up my heart:

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 ground,
Downcomings of the distant light;
They are 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.
0 light come down to earth, be praised!

In my childhood Canada spring was a time of mud and blackflies, and I didn't really understand the fuss about it. I am still an autumn-loving girl, but spring here is radiant, with blooming trees on every corner. This poem gave me a little breath of God.