Writers who listen to the trees
By By Otha Barham / outdoors editor
July 9, 2004
What is it about writers and trees? Folks who are captivated by words, especially poets, can't seem to write many of them without broaching the subject of trees. I offer this point as a curiosity, but in truth the fact that writers give us inspirational works about trees feeds a certain affection I have for those marvels of nature.
One of my life's most transforming encounters involved a special tree in Lauderdale County that had died a generation or more before automobiles and airplanes came onto the scene but stood tall until I was out of college. I wrote the story of that tree and me in my book.
I was thinking of Joyce Kilmer's compelling line, "I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree," when I picked up several of my poetry books recently to learn if my hunch was right that poets are overly inspired by trees.
A book of 65 poems published by Southern Poetry Association includes 16 poems about or specifically mentioning trees.
The very title of Pauline Simmons Busbee's book "Heart Pine" is about the wonderful, aromatic wood of our cherished pine trees. Lines from her poem of that name speak of our southern culture.
stubborn nails will break before they bend.
The one who finally conquers pulls pine piece by piece
and rips their rosined past apart, scenting kitchen
back to stovewood days."
And she writes of living trees in her "Bequest."
on persimmon trees
yet fruit remains
in luscious golden balls."
Mississippi's Poet Laureate, Winifred Hamrick Farrar, writes of a guidepost tree in her poem of a journey through a threatening shroud, "Engulfed."
but fixing my eyes
on the straight white trunk
of a barren sycamore,
I waver toward light
and think of a hidden star
behind the spectral sight."
Even my cowboy poet friend Ed Keenan writes of trees; he who grew up and lives in a land near the border with Mexico where trees are scarce. He praises the twisted oaks in his poem "Dulzura" which is about one of his boyhood homes "so far out the sun set between us and town."
Made all us kids a family
And the teacher was your School Mom
Not just another Mrs. Hanley
With the best playground equipment
Like big ol' trees and boulders
Made for swinging and climbing high
By standing on our shoulders."
My poetry books are filled with poems about the outdoors. And a healthy slice of these reflect thoughts about trees. A tree is one of nature's most silent creatures, but some of them have so very much to say to us.
