Promptly Poetry Challenge 2022/2023

See the gnarly old oak tree
Reaching to the sky?
Its branches twisted
Out like hands in prayer.

What matter of storm
Did this tree bear?
The turbulence given
To these mighty limbs?

When the oak was young,
It was flexible, and
Could stand those forces
That would bring others down.

Take a lesson from the oak,
Be flexible when young;
So when the storms come,
You may bow, but not break.

When you see the old,
Remember that once
It was young and flexible;
The scars are its witnesses.