What do you see when you look at a tree?
I see leaves, stems, branches, roots, and a trunk. And there’s also photosynthesis, leaf litter, decomposition, glucose sugar molecules, cellulose molecules, and plant respiration.
Oh, but there’s so much more to a tree.
Joyce Kilmer — one of my favorite poets — wrote a poem about trees in 1913:
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
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.
There are many other poems by Kipling, Wordsworth, and Dickinson, but none so simple and elegant as Kilmer.
There are tire swings hanging from old oak trees. Or regular swings. Right now, I know a set of grandparents who hung two swings from the large silver maple in their front yard.
The grandchildren love it. And when you get tired of pushing the swing with your hands, you use your feet.
There are tree houses. We had a fort built around a tree. We could climb through the hole in the roof and get as far up as we wanted. Our parents trusted us not to be idiots, I guess. They nailed boards to the cedar so we could climb it. It was the 90s.
Behind our fort were more cedars. They were somewhat close together, so we put two boards across the span between them. Then we cleared the branches so we could see the driveway. That was our lookout spot.
Trees provide shade from the sun, children with fun, lumber for homes, vibrant colors in autumn, shelter for squirrels, clean air to breathe, lumberjacks with jobs, and books with paper.
Yes, there’s more to a tree than what we can see.
to the amateur arborists,
– Caleb
caneymountainblog.com 