Despite the fact that I love the outdoors, no one would mistake me for a tree hugger. While I’ve become more and more “crunchy” over the years, I’ve never embraced the moniker “environmentalist,” for a variety of reasons. I was, however, such an ant-litter Nazi, that when a Pennsylvania hotline existed to report littering, I made several calls detailing make, model, and license number of cars from which trash was thrown. But, I digress. In honor of the fact I’m finally reading Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si, I’ve compiled a list of my favorite trees.
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.