Remember the carpenter's bench;
the smell of the cut wood.
Cedar, cypress, pine, or oak.
Light coming through the door.
Or an overcast day, with the sawdust trodden down.
Remember learning the names of trees:
cedar; cypress; pine.
He knows how to bend to lift this beam
and how to straighten his back.
He's done it before.
This is sound wood, and it will bear him.
This is the oak of Mamre under whose shade Abraham sat until the three angels appeared.
This is the cypress that made the rafter over Solomon's bed.
This is the cedar from the forests of Lebanon, the very image of majesty.
This is green wood.
He bends and lifts it.
And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord;
I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree,
dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish.
I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.
Crucem tuam adoramus, Domine:
et sanctum resurrectionem tuam laudamus,
et glorificamus:
ecce enim propter lignum venit gaudium
in universo mundo.