Pine, I am calling to you 
Aspen, I am singing to you 
Redwood, hear this song 
Birch-bark, weeping willow 
and Dogwood, blooming moonlight 
Cedar, let it fall, fall away 
Oak, you bore my body 
Bay, I bade you open these vessels… 

To receive your whispers 
tender breath-keepers 
givers of life to these lungs 
may I open my ears and 
surrender 
what can you tell me 
how can I tend you 
how can I tend to the ones 
who pour life through these lungs… 

Care for these rivers going dry 
bone and sorrow held as 
pain, drought of feeling, yet the 
rain can give us freedom, forest 
rain, but if we cut them, it goes 
away, help us 
open these vessels… 

To receive your whispers 
tender breath-keepers 
givers of life to these lungs 
may I open my ears and 
surrender 
what can you tell me 
how can I tend you 
how can I tend to the ones 
who pour life through these lungs… 

“We, for every one of us you’ve uprooted 
you can soothe it by planting another 
of the same as the kind you’ve uprooted 
every ending a beginning if you choose it… 
you can soothe it… 
if you choose it…”