My favourite Poem

I have many favourite poems - in fact my No.1 is Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, but this poem by Alfred Joyce Kilmer has a special place in my heart. Kilmer who was a journalist, critic and lecturer was extremely fond of poetry and wrote poems to celebrate his faith and fascination with nature. Although he wrote dozens of poems, he was criticized for his simplistic and often mawkish style in writing, and it was only his untimely death in the 2nd battle of the Marne in 1918 that prevented him from truly developing his style into that of a more serious and respected poets and writers. It is his poem Trees for which he is chiefly remembered. Written in honour of his wife's mother, it is to me one of the most beautiful and simple tribute to trees I've seen. He somehow captures the very essence of what a tree is.

Here is the poem....

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

reprinted from Wikipedia.