Trees and Poetry.

 



Elegy for a Walnut Tree
by W. S. Merwin

Old friend now there is no one alive
who remembers when you were young
it was high summer when I first saw you
in the blaze of day most of my life ago
with the dry grass whispering in your shade
and already you had lived through wars
and echoes of wars around your silence
through days of parting and seasons of absence
with the house emptying as the years went their way
until it was home to bats and swallows
and still when spring climbed toward summer
you opened once more the curled sleeping fingers
of newborn leaves as though nothing had happened
you and the seasons spoke the same language
and all these years I have looked through your limbs
to the river below and the roofs and the night
and you were the way I saw the world

Trees

BY 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.

          Grass and trees are one way to understand my relation to this land. The grass on both native prairie and land that's been tilled gives me joy and satisfaction. However, the harsh winter climate has led me to follow in my grandfather's and father's footsteps planting trees, an estimated 10,000.

           There's a large Chinese elm behind the garage that needs removal. It threatens power lines and buildings. It's too big, with obstructions nearby, for me too tackle. Time for professionals.

            With the spread of the emerald ash borer...not here yet...I regret the green ash I planted.  I should have planted more cedar, even though they go rogue. They provide wonderful wildlife cover, in the right places, for wildlife. Pheasants will roost in them in the winter out of the frigid wind and safe from ground based predators.

Takk for alt,

Al

                             The grass is taller than Sella.