Sunday, September 13, 2009

Failure Is Sudden

All the kings horses
and all the kings men
couldn't put Humpty
together again


















Failure is sudden
it comes from long rot
you think to foresee it
I'm thinking not



It ends in confusion



This rot in the core



There many long years










And now it's no more

4 comments:

nina said...

Was it burned in its root stage?
What is the cannister?

On the other hand, although there is tragedy in your poetry, it is only another stage in the great cycle. There is a long job going on and this remnant of life is joining back with Mother Earth to nurture seedlings.

I'm going by the photos of course and your title puts the question to just how recent exactly was this "failure"?

Pangolin said...

This was a truly massive valley oak in Bidwell Park in Chico California. The site is about 150 yards west of the Hwy. 99 overpass of the park.

The top of that stump is about a yard wide. The object you see is an 11 inch stainless steel water bottle. The tree had two giant limbs that grew from apparent lightning strike damage. The poor knit around the damage and the massive and opposing weight of the two limbs tore the tree in half.

A three foot wide cylinder of living oak torn in half in seconds after maybe 150 years of life. I thought it an appropriate lesson.

The gap in the canopy will be filled in very quickly at this site. Less than 50 yards from Big Chico Creek there is plenty of ground water to feed young trees.

Volunteers struggle to keep this area of the park thinned to fire-resistant densities. There will eventually be a clearing fire. Another "failure" waiting in the wings.

nina said...

Did you fall in love or something? Its been practically weeks! How ya doin?

Pangolin said...

I kind of "lost my voice" for a while there and now I'm having computer problems.

Thanks for checking in. I may be a bit quieter for a while until I resolve what's wrong with my machine.