"Among My Scrub Oak" by Howard Stein, Frequent Contributor & Poet of the Week

Among My Scrub Oak       

Howard Stein      

leathery leaves

contorted branches

not much for majesty

not much for lumber

long roots for drought

long waits for rain

Oklahoma scrub oak

keep their secret

in carefully guarded rings

tell a story

of craggy defiance –

when most everything

around them dries up,

scrub oak still thrive

Poet's Notes: Weather permitting, I spend much of my daylight time out on my little front porch, smoking my pipe and writing while dwelling among the mostly Scrub Oak trees, widespread inhabitants of the region. In early fall 2017, I wrote this poem as a meditation on the remarkable resilience (and adaptation) of a tree in a largely inhospitable environment--transparently autobiographical as well.