The Oak Tree Poem by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr.

"The Oak Tree" is a short rhyming poem about a tree that loses its leaves and branches to a relentless wind but survives because its roots run deep. It is almost always credited to Johnny Ray Ryder Jr., though we couldn't find an original book or publication date, and a few collections print it as "author unknown".

If you're reading this because someone sent you the poem during a hard stretch, or because you went looking for it yourself, we understand. Some seasons feel exactly like that wind. You're tired, you're stripped back, and you're not sure how much more you can take.

This page is about why the poem helps, how it's built, and what it asks of us. Because it is a modern poem and almost certainly still in copyright, we share only a short excerpt here and point you to where you can read it in full.

Who Wrote "The Oak Tree"?

Let's be straight with you about what we know and what we don't. The poem circulates widely under the name Johnny Ray Ryder Jr. (sometimes John Ray Ryder Jr.). Youth ministries, schools and graduation speakers quote it under that name, and it appears that way on countless printables and gifts.

What we haven't been able to find is a first source: no book, no magazine, no dated publication, and no official site for the poet. At least one well-known compilation, a National Garden Clubs resource, prints the same poem with "author unknown". An earlier version of this page gave a birth year and marriage details for the poet. We couldn't verify any of them, so we've removed them.

So the honest answer is this. Johnny Ray Ryder Jr. is the name most consistently attached to the poem, and we credit him here. But treat the details as unconfirmed until a printed original turns up. If you know where it first appeared, we'd genuinely love to hear from you.

Where to Read the Full Poem

Because no publisher or poet's website hosts the poem, there isn't a single authoritative home for it. One widely shared version, credited to Johnny Ray Ryder Jr., is in this "Staying Strong" reflection sheet from CYO, Archdiocese of Indianapolis, which pairs the poem with questions for discussion.

The poem is five verses of four lines each, twenty lines in all. Read it once out loud before you go on. It's written to be heard.

What Happens in the Poem

The first verse is all loss. A wind blows night and day and takes everything it can from the oak: the leaves, then the branches, then the bark. By the end of four lines the tree is worn out and bare.

In the second verse, the tree is still standing while the trees around it have fallen. The wind, exhausted, finally asks the question we all want answered: how are you still here?

The oak's reply fills the rest of the poem. It admits the wind can do real damage. It can break every branch, carry off every leaf, even make the tree sway. Then comes the heart of the poem:

But I have roots stretched in the earth
Growing stronger since my birth
You'll never touch them, for you see
They are the deepest part of me.

"The Oak Tree", credited to Johnny Ray Ryder Jr.

In the final verse the tree says something surprising. It thanks the wind. Until this storm, it didn't know how much it could endure. Now it does, and it has found a strength it never suspected.

How the Poem Works

"The Oak Tree" is built like a nursery rhyme on purpose. Every pair of lines rhymes (day and away, ground and around, earth and birth), and most lines have the same steady, eight-syllable beat. That rhythm is easy to remember and easy to say when your own words have run out. It's one reason people tuck it into sympathy cards and speeches.

It's also a fable. The tree and the wind talk, the way animals talk in Aesop. And here's the clever part. In Aesop's old fable "The Oak and the Reeds", the proud oak refuses to bend and is torn up by the roots, while the humble reeds bow and survive.

Ryder's oak is different. It doesn't pretend to be unbreakable. It loses its leaves, its limbs and its bark, and it admits it sways.

What keeps it standing is underneath, out of sight. The poem gently moves strength from the parts everyone can see to the part no one can.

What the Roots Stand For

The leaves and branches are the things life can take: plans, health, a job, a relationship, the version of ourselves we were proud of. The roots are what was growing the whole time, "since my birth" as the poem puts it.

Values. Faith, if you have it. The people who raised us and the love that shaped us. The small habits that keep us upright.

Here's the blunt truth the poem gets right. Strength isn't the absence of damage. The oak is a mess by verse two. Strength is what's still standing when the visible things are gone.

And the gratitude at the end comes from discovering something real in the middle of the storm. You didn't know you could survive this. Now you have proof.

Finding Your Own Roots

So, if you're in your own windstorm right now, try this.

Take a piece of paper and draw two columns. On the left, write what this season has stripped away. Be honest. On the right, write what's still there: the people who check on you, the beliefs you haven't let go of, the things you keep doing even on the worst days.

That right-hand column is your root system. Read it when the wind is loud. You're allowed to grieve the leaves. You're also allowed to notice that you're still standing.

If you have someone in your life who's in the middle of a storm, the poem makes a gentle gift. It doesn't lecture. It doesn't promise the wind will stop. It simply says: there is more to you than this.

A Note on Sharing the Poem

Because the author's details are uncertain, the kindest thing you can do when you share "The Oak Tree" is keep the credit attached. Write "credited to Johnny Ray Ryder Jr." rather than leaving it anonymous or putting another name on it. Poems like this travel far precisely because people pass them hand to hand, and the name deserves to travel with it.

If you'd like more poems about staying steady through hard times, you might like our piece on Wendell Berry's "The Peace of Wild Things".

The wind does blow. It will again.

But you have roots you've been growing your whole life, and they are deeper than any storm can reach. Hang in there. You're stronger than you know.