The Pohutakawa On The Driveway Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

Into the stark retaining wall
Formed of planking and stanchions
Seed-dust was blown in late autumn
Finding a foothold.

Thin sustenance and moisture:
But a form, a chance of life
For an indomitable spirit
Seeking the light, and the hope of grounding

As lost and distant as the early earth itself -
Where flowering first cast back the sunlight,
And stem and leaf drew nectar from the soil -
The dreamt land for which all hungers seek.

Slowly the seedling crown is formed
Its roots edging apart the piles -
Coming increasingly to culmination,
Branches standing out, standing up.

And then hope against hope and more
Adventurous adventitious rootlets drop,
Trailing, searching red-ragged for crevices
And pockets of dirt - for a place to stand.

Come this summer, bedrock has been gained
Interminable to calculus and ecstasy -
And happy in that delightful, loose release of ease
Festivities of flowers now celebrate in fountain sprays.