A Chance With The Ancients:
Christian Munoz

Out of soil and duff
arise these born redwoods
lighting up the forest like the sun
marking the birth of shelters for animals
and the continuation of their kind

Reaching the sky with unimaginable heights
grown to the last foot
mature redwoods will ensure
that generations will exist
from cones fallen off branches
to clones with the same blood

These dead and fallen giants
offer life within death
collapsed logs on the ground
hold the power of nourishment and energy
for trees to thrive

Here seeing the whole cycle
of a redwood's life
from seeds to brethren
and branches that touch the sky
tells me I shouldn't have
thought twice about coming to
Redwood National Park