Just One More Reason June Is The Best Month Ever

Over the years, I have received wonderful gifts from my children that are usually nature inspired: hand painted clay pot with a flower, daisy chains, a frame with acorns and moss glued to it.  Each one has special meaning, but one gift stands out on its own.  When my oldest daughter was nine years old, she memorized a poem as my gift and because we are in the nursery business, she chose Trees by Joyce Kilmer.   I would hear her in her room every evening practicing and getting a little further each day.  I would sometimes hear the frustration in her voice through the floor, but she stayed with it.  On the day of my birthday, she appeared in my room at sunrise, with her hands clasped tightly together and her eyes showing her anticipation and nervousness.  She recited the poem to me, hardly taking a breath, as if it was one long sentence, but it was the most beautiful poem I had ever heard.  So in honor of my birthday, here is 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.