The Sassafras Lives!

Cut down September 2005, new shoot appearing Summer 2006
Photos taken August 15, 2006 by Larry Holder in the Quandrangle of The University of Tennessee at Martin

For there is hope for a tree,
if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that its shoots will not cease.
Though its root grow old in the earth,
and its stump die in the ground,
yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth branches like a young plant.
Job 14:7-9

 


In the shoots of the Sassafras, budding anew
The spirit we treasure lives on
From the roots taking hold for a century and more
Though the form once familiar is gone.

Yet the life carried forward will tower once more
Through the cycle of sunshine and rain
And the promise of future days yet to be told
Will carry us forward again.

Alive in abundance, now witness the truth
That the Sassafras does ably imply
A life born of spirit is not merely a form
And such spirit, my friend, cannot die.

- Larry Holder, 8/24/6