Trees

Muir Woods

My love for trees was formed as a child.  I lived in Pennsylvania up until the 7th grade and our home backed up to the woods.  If you've ever been to Pennsylvania then you know it's full of trees.  I currently live in Kansas and trees just aren't quite as abundant here.   I memorized the poem Trees by Joyce Kilmer when I was in grade school.  It is the only poem I can still recite, and I think it sums up beautifully how I feel about trees.  I have been to Muir Woods and stood among the Redwoods and witnessed the splendor of autumn foliage in the Northeast.  Trees are a great place to start witnessing the extraordinary in the ordinary.

TREES

by: Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

THINK that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.