“…family tree…”

Family Tree

Family time 

A family tree

Enough strength for another day for me.

Same home, same street for many years. 

A “Little house in the big woods”

“Family life is hard and serious work,

But fun 

Keep that twinkle in your eye”

Family.

Walk and see 

The memories

Similar paths recall

Roots so deep

Limbs branching, strong and climbing 

Heights never dreamed

Family tree 

Family Circles

Walk the paths 

Circle the paths;

Around memorials aged and high

Around flags reaching to the sky

Around a bronze, heart, embraced with arms of steel

Around inscriptions, Loss to Bliss

Around Life promise’d

Family trees,

Roots at our feet

Family trees

Pruning

Limbs growing off course, awry 

Disease and age deprived of leaves

Volunteers, new sprouts,

Growth. Grafting new growth to family

“Brokenness to beautiful”

Family.

Think how many have looked up.

How many generations have looked to The Lord 

“The Lord is round about his people

Encircles and wraps around those who belong to him” (1)

Trial and turn, they pass

Seasons change

Love, understanding, and legacies remain.

The one thing we have seen bright as the new day is

The promise of the day, seeing your faces, 

Wishing we would have “given more away.

“The way of love…

Grounding, a place to rest

Pulling us through when no strength remains” (2)

 Family Tree, Glimpse poetry by Joe Holuta 

About this poem: Family Tree is a poem about the growth each family experiences in life. Each person, including everything about them, makes the family tree. Imperfect yet enduring and love in the middle- life. -Joe Holuta 

(1) “Just as the mountains around Jerusalem embrace her, the Eternal, too, wraps around those who belong to Him—for this moment and for every moment to come.” Psalm 125:2 VOICE

(2) "The way of love will show us the right thing to do, every single time. It is moral and spiritual grounding-and a place of rest- amid the chaos that is often part of life. It’s how we stay decent in indecent times... And It’s those people that love that pull us through and keep us going when we don’t have the strength.… Human beings – fragile as we are – are the beautiful, heartbreaking conduit, but ultimately not the source.” - Bishop Michael Curry, Love is the Way; Holding onto Hope in Troubled Times.