Lost Brother
I knew that tree was my lost brother
when I heard he was cut down
at four thousand eight hundred sixty-two years;
I know we had the same mother.
His death pained me. I made up a story.
I realized, when I saw his photograph,
he was an evergreen, a bristlecone like me,
who had lived form an early age
with a certain amount of dieback,
at impossible locations, at elevations
over ten thousand feet in extreme weather.
His company: other conifers,
the rosy finch, the rock wren, the raven and clouds,
blue and silver insects that fed mostly off each other.
Some years bighorn sheep visited in the summer-
he was entertained by the red bats, black-tailed jackrabbits,
homed lizards, the creatures old and young he sheltered.
Beside him in the shade, pink mountain pennyroyal-
to his south, white angelica.
i am prepared to live as long as he did
(it would please our mother),
live with clouds and those I love
suffering with God.
Sooner or late, some bag of wind will cut me down.
--- Stanley Moss


...After I read the poem Lost Brother, it really stuck to me, as I read it a couple of times I found that I really enjoyed what Stanley Moss was trying to get across. The main point or meaning of this poem is about how we as humans take advantage of one of the many creations God has made for us which is the environment. Stanley explains to us that the trees have been her for as long as four thousand eight hundred and sixty-two years, and we as people do not recognize that and we take advantage of what they really give us. We look right through the trees and don't see the whole picture, trees give us shelter, block the brutal wind, and shade the light when to bright. Stanley Moss wrote "at impossible locations, at elevations over ten thousand feet in extreme weather". I picked up on this quote because to me he was trying to say that trees have done the impossibe and conqured places where people havn't been. Even in exteme weather the trees still stand tall while we complain. When Moss said "(it would please our mother)" I quickley thought of one thing which was mother nature. It would please her for this new tree to live as long as his "brother" because his "brother" has made an impact on many things and more of him need to be recognized..... " Sooner or later, some bag of wind will cut me down." This stood out to me because he is saying that no matter how much of an impact I make it won't matter because people do not see what I have really done for them.

.... Another focus I want to touch on is the Tone. I felt that stanley moss felt sad and helpless because he wants to fix the problem soo bad but deep down inside he knows that nothing will change.