The Woman Speaks of Sequoias by Kimberly Phinney

I’ve known sequoias:
I’ve known sequoia trees so ancient and old that their underground cities
of tangled roots span deeper and broader than the human kind.

My soul has grown deep like the sequoias.

I walked among them in my mind—ruddy and wide, a perennial green—while the world slept and spun on without me.
I watched them stand in the fire, like Shadrach, and walk out untouched
as everything blackened and crumbled around them—dust to dust.
I heard their fallen seeds crackle like hot embers on the forest floor—
oysters breaking open in vibrating life—a small pearl inside.
And I remembered what my teacher told me when I was small:
“The great sequoia seeds need fire to regenerate—
burn them up, they break open, and come back to life.”

Yes, I’ve known sequoias:
Phoenixes, burned by their Maker—
resurrected and set apart.

My soul has been burned like the sequoias.

*Inspired by Langston Hughes’ poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”

Kimberly Phinney is a mother, wife, teacher, writer, and professional photographer. But most importantly, she is a child of God. She earned her M.Ed. in English in 2017 and is the English department head and AP English teacher at a private Christian school in Tampa, FL. She has taught for 17 years and is the recipient of the Nobel Claes Educator of Distinction Award and the Outstanding Educator Award from the University of Chicago. After multiple surgeries and a near-death experience in 2021, Kimberly fought to find God in the hardest of places as she learned to walk again. She hopes to one day use her story to help others. Kimberly is now pursuing her Doctor of Education in counseling and wants to seek God’s ultimate will in her life. She is writing a book on education and parenting and hopes to publish a Christian memoir one day, which will chronicle her illness and God’s goodness during her journey. In her free time, she loves to garden with her daughter, drink strong coffee with her husband, and read heaps of books—particularly the Bible and The Great Gatsby—over and over again.