I love majestic old gum trees with their gnarled limbs and tatters of bark. Judith Wright (1915–2000), Australian poet, wrote often of gum trees, including in this stanza from her poem 'Gum trees stripping':
'Wisdom can see the red, the rose,
the stained and sculptured curve of grey,
the charcoal scars of fire, and see,
around that living tower of tree
the hermit tatters of old bark
split down and strip to end the season;
and can be quiet and not look
for reasons past the edge of reason.'
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