Good Timber
Words by Douglas Malloch, with a final verse by Kevin Ball; music by Kevin Ball with Suno. Produced with Suno.
The story
Douglas Malloch wrote this poem over a century ago, and its core idea has never aged: struggle doesn't diminish us, it defines us. The stronger wind, the stronger trees. I've felt that power my whole life, and when I finally set it to music it came out as fingerpicked guitar, piano, and harmonies that build verse by verse...like the words being sung.
I added my own final verse. Malloch's poem ends with "this is the common law of life." I wanted to take it one step further, to the hand that sustains us through the storm and the One who made us grow in the first place. That verse is mine, and it's the one I'm most proud of.
I think this poem resonates because everyone has faced a storm they weren't sure they'd survive. This song is for them.
Kevin
Lyrics
Verse 1
The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.
Verse 2
The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.
Chorus
Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm,
the more the strength.
By sun and cold,
by rain and snow,
In trees and men
good timbers grow.
Verse 3
Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.
Chorus
Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm,
the more the strength.
By sun and cold,
by rain and snow,
In trees and men
good timbers grow.
Verse 4
The soul that never faced the night,
Nor longed for dawn’s redeeming light,
That never wept, then rose to stand,
Upheld by God’s sustaining hand,
Never knew what hope could be,
Till lifted up, sustained, set free.
Final Chorus
Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow...
And when the final winds shall blow,
They rise to Him who made them grow.