I didn't know how to write about the topic of this posting until I remembered a favorite poem (that was also put to music) from my childhood, "Trees" by the American poet, Joyce Kilmer.
I 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.
"Trees" was originally published in Trees and Other Poems. Joyce Kilmer. New York: George H. Doran Company, 1914.
I first learned about "Trees" and Joyce Kilmer when I was, perhaps, in first or second grade, and my church's Cherub (I was a cherub in name only.) Choir director (who would in later years become my mother-in-law) had the Cherub Choir sing a song that was based upon Kilmer's poem. The words have stuck in my head for over fifty years although I can only sing the notes that go to the poem's first line.
Yesterday I heard a reporting piece, on network television, about a special survivor from the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11 - a pear tree. As rubble was being removed, in the search for survivors and victims, this tree was discovered under twelve feet of concrete. Battered, bruised and nearly destroyed, the tree later displayed a tiny bit of new growth and was moved to an off-site location where it has been loved and cared for since the disaster. It carries with it scars and burn marks from its fateful position at Ground Zero but now stands strong and viable at thirty-five feet tall, a reminder of death and destruction coupled with life, courage and rebirth. It will be relocated back at Ground Zero, among the other trees that will be planted, in time for the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and the unveiling of the Memorial site.
What a beautiful and inspirational story about one tree that survived against all odds. I think that Joyce Kilmer - who himself was a victim of WWI as a soldier in the 165th Infantry Regiment, dying in 1918, at the age of 31, in the Second Battle of the Marne - was a man with a vision.
Thank you, Joyce Kilmer. I hope someone remembers your poem as the pear tree is being replanted.
Ancora imparo
