A Poem As Lovely As A Tree...

One of the delights about living in Evanston is the lake front walk, which runs from one end of town to the other and never fails to impress. Sunday the weather was perfect, clear skies, light winds, dozens of young people boarding and sailing, kids on the beach, a United Nations, to be sure, with people of every nationality having picnics, family events, or just hanging out.

We took a long walk to enjoy the day and to survey the impact of the recent storm, with its heavy rains and 100 MPH winds. Nature makes the beauty of that walk, and nature breaks it, too. It’s a heart break to see so many huge trees brought down, their roots sticking up perpendicular to the ground.

Without tapping them and counting growth rings, it’s hard to say how long those trees have been standing there. But I imagine they were around when Joyce Kilmer’s poem “Trees” was mandatory reading for junior high kids.

“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.”

Okay, not the best poem ever written.

In fact, it verges on being terrible. Except for its closing line.

So take a walk on Evanston’s lakefront and say farewell to some genuine giants. God surely can make them. He can also take them. And that’s my own terrible little poem.

Charlie Madigan was a reporter and editor for 40 years at United Press International and The Chicago Tribune. He lives in Evanston and writes the Lightningwriter blog. The photos are his, too.