by Kimberly Phinney
HEARTWOOD
Did you hear
about the heartwood
of the tree?
She goes unseen,
but she is strong—
the backbone of life on which a tree stands on.
Yes, no one sees her
unless there is great loss—
like when lumberjacks come,
hacking things up through the forest,
or when tempest winds storm through a copse.
Then and only then do you see her
and marvel at what she has made,
has held up,
has given herself for,
has endured for many.
Growing and giving quietly in dark places,
her pith is food and spine and shelter
for limbs and leaves and seasons.
Great holder of boughs and all living creatures
that come to keep houses among them:
the wren, the cardinal, the chipmunk, the lichen—
all blissfully thriving
and unaware of her petrified power,
her silent courage—year after year—
offering up sacrifices like the finest perfume
gave to bathe the Messiah’s feet.
Yes, she is worshiper; she is life.
She is marrow; she is rife—
to birth ecosystems
like nervous systems,
all connective tissue digging down into the earth
where even eyes and ears
cannot go.
Yes, for all the splendors
one can know or love in this world,
in her, there is a sturdier beauty
that roots
down
deeper
still!
KIMBERLY PHINNEY
Kimberly Phinney is an award-winning professor and writer. She is the founder and publisher of TheWayBack2Ourselves.com and The Way Back Books. Kimberly holds her M.Ed. in English and is a doctoral candidate in Community Care and Counseling. Her research and dissertation focus on exiled Christian artists. Her work appears in Christianity Today, Ekstasis (now Inkwell), Solum, Fathom, Radix, and more. Her poetry collections, Of Wings and Dirt and Exalted Ground, were bestsellers. Her forthcoming book on art and faith debuts with Baker Books in 2028. She’s a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, an Audience Choice Award winner with Ekstasis (now Inkwell), and a runner-up in Fathom’s Poetry Contest. She is also a fellow scholar with the Good Neighbors Fellowship and Interfaith America, and a writing competition judge for the Evangelical Press Association. She was featured on Good Morning America for a national teaching award with the Nobel family.
You can find Kimberly on Instagram @kimberlyphinneywriter and @thewayback2ourselves and on Substack at thewayback2ourselves.substack.com.