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All living plants, each man alive,

live pliant and will yield.
A plant once dead, a man that's died,
are dry and stiff and hard.
Rigid persons side with death.
Yielding persons side with life.

Armies that cannot yield will lose.
Trees that cannot bend will snap.

The strong and rigid all will fail.
The pliant and yielding will prevail.

© Douglas Allchin 2002