John Delaney, USA
What it must feel like to stand tall for so long
after the crowds have dispersed
and the hoopla is over.
We who are constantly fleeing
find in your scarred face
an upright sense of being,
refusing to be fuel to fire.
No pushover to a stiff-armed wind.
No bending to another’s will,
like a mind
fixed on righting a wrong.
We who are consumed by desire
find in your thick spongy bark
an incombustible truth
rising higher
like an exclamation mark.
President Calvin Coolidge designated the General Grant Tree (Kings Canyon National Park) as the Nation's Christmas Tree in 1926. Annual holiday services are held at its base on the second Sunday of December.
In 2016, John Delaney moved out to Port Townsend, WA, after a lifetime in the East, where he was curator of historic maps at Princeton. Delaney has ravelled widely, preferring remote, natural settings, and is addicted to kayaking and hiking. In 2017, he published Waypoints (Pleasure Boat Studio, Seattle), a collection of place poems. Twenty Questions, a chapbook, just appeared in July (Finishing Line Press, 2019).
