Sunday, May 8, 2011

Reprising Joyce Kilmer


                                             Medley

        A Homage to Trees in Poetry and Pictures
                            
                               by Cindy Pinkston



As I grew during childhood, many trees
living near my home were time-markers;
and now as an adult, they have not changed.
Trees are living calendars.


In winter many are bare, a medley of sticks.
Slowly, quietly, tiny buds blossom in spring.
Summer brings refreshing shade, varicolored
fruits and berries. In autumn, the trees are aflame.

I still remember crossing campus as the days
grew colder.  Carried along by a stronger breeze
the bronze, red, golden leaves of fall gave me
no small delight as we danced together.




All trees sing. Some audibly: pines that sigh,
the steady breath of the ancient redwoods.
Trees reach upwards : towards sun, sky,
the heavens. Trees worship.

P.S.: I would like to thank Cindy for contributing this piece on trees - both the poem and the photos.  In the SFO Bay Area, there is an organization called Canopy which promotes the planting of trees.  If you would like to know about what they are doing and what resources they offer for those who want to improve their neighborhoods, here's the link 

P.S.2: Note: Yesterday, May 7, Microsoft, National Semiconductor, NVIDIA, REI, RHI, SanDisk and Yahoo joined forces with Canopy to plant more than 400 trees in a single day at Green Oaks and Cesar Chavez Academies on Ralmar Street in East Palo Alto – part of an initiative to plant more than 1,000 trees in the coming months. You can read more about it here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another beautiful poem.....

Trees
by Harry Behn
Trees are the kindest things I know,
They do no harm, they simply grow
And spread a shade for sleepy cows,
And gather birds among their bows.
They give us fruit in leaves above,
And wood to make our houses of,
And leaves to burn on Halloween
And in the Spring new buds of green.
They are first when day's begun
To tough the beams of morning sun,
They are the last to hold the light
When evening changes into night.
And when a moon floats on the sky
They hum a drowsy lullaby
Of sleepy children long ago...
Trees are the kindest things I know.

ajay said...

Trees are truly beautiful......one should think more about them !

Minoo Jha said...

That's a wonderful poem, Ajay....thanks for bringing it to my attention