The tree is here, still, in pure stone, <br />in deep evidence, in solid beauty, <br />layered, through a hundred million years. <br />Agate, cornelian, gemstone <br />transmuted the timber and sap <br />until damp corruptions <br />fissured the giant's trunk <br />fusing a parallel being: <br />the living leaves <br />unmade themselves <br />and when the pillar was overthrown <br />fire in the forest, blaze of the dust-cloud, <br />celestial ashes mantled it round, <br />until time, and the lava, created <br />this gift, of translucent stone.<br /><br />Pablo Neruda<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-tree-is-here-still-in-pure-stone/
