Not one top but a dozen the oak has,
gnarled each, knotted every one.
Split many ways, dust-frecked as
all crown they clench sensing sun.
Shoving their mangle any way it will
they gouge wind, auger sky wide,
find each a flaying out to fill,
end each to a fuller, loner side.
Not head is single, but the heart
maybe; and thrust is one in hidden,
not in the worked grown broken part.
Dozen the wounds that open out unbidden
but every wound’s a window on within,
showing the heart in what the broken bole has been.
--Lloyd Haft (from Where Is the Body That Will Hold?, 1998)