Ken Rubeli’s ode to the Dungog Hospital Tree

The Sentinel Tree

One tree stands free of company,

a sculpture – branch, twig, leaf –

against the sky for every passer-by

in this a small town’s life, its calm,

its strife.  One tree the sentinel

the time to tell, the season, from

the reason of its sundial shadow,

summer-short and winter-long,

a trunk so strong to stand on land

that bore the prints of feet that

walked these wooded hills through

summer’s heat and winter’s chills

and watched a seedling grow.

They on this hill above the Dhuribang

flow could not know a song soon sung

of loss for others’ gain.  They knew

this tree and others gum-stemmed

scattered on this ridgecrest blessed

with dawn’s first light and nightfall’s

parting glow.  As we now know though

just this one tree stands stern sentinel

over our town, to tell us of our past

and test how fast we hold to honour

nature’s power, in fruit, in flower,

in leaf, to bring in sickness a relief.

And I am here in this home of healing

at the window to the radiant feeling

of the morning’s sun and the stoic

presence of this one tree, still there,

old like me.  And we together wonder

on this ancient land how long can

we stand?  Stand strong….

How long?