Quercus suber, cork oak, height 28."


This tree was trained from a pencil sized seedling in the ground. Trained by directional pruning only.

A part of a poem by an American poet, Anne Bradstreet, in Contemplations.

......
Then on a stately oak I cast mine eye,
Whose ruffling top the clouds seemed to aspire.
How long since thou wast in thine infancy?
Thy strength and stature more thy years admire.
Hath hundred winters passed since thou wast born,
Or thousand since thou break'st thy shell of horn?
If so, all these as naught eternity doth scorn.

Then higher on the glistering sun I gazed,
Whose beams were shaded by the leafy tree;
The more I looked the more I grew amazed,
And softly said, what glory's like to thee?
Soul of this world, this universe's eye,
No wonder some made thee a deity.
Had I not better known, alas, the same had I.
......

How I wish I could write like Anne, but I cannot. Well, some people make the sun a deity but the bonsai people try to make part of their tree a god. The Chinese character for the Japanese word "Jin" use in bonsai terms means god.