The Fortingall Yew

When Neolithic man with fur & stone Roamed Scotland, one small seed begat a tree At Fortingall, with wolf and wildness sown It grew in stature, a yew stout and free It shaded wild cat, beaver, Bronge Age man And later, Roman legions from the sea Here Pontius Pilate played within its ken The boy who killed a breeze and bred a gale This yew's seen Kingdoms rise & Kingdoms fail Eternal in its ancient, siccar soil Enduring Beltane fire, flood and hail It watched men hunt and forage, till and toil This tree of Knowledge, sacred churchyard queen Grown from the heart of Scotland, stinch and royal The mythic and the modern lie between Its boughs like fleeting pictures in a dream