The Trees

 On Joyce Kilmer's "The Trees"

A vintage poem, familiar to many I suspect because it was a big hit for decades and a poem which has remained popular over the years. It's not one that's held in high regard by serious poetry fans, though.

I'm not sure why I thought about that poem all of a sudden. Perhaps it was because of the last line, "But only God can make a tree." And maybe because I've been living in Alabama for almost 50 years. That is, in the heart of the Bible Belt, in a state that's a stronghold of evangelical Christianity. 

My thinking about Kilmer's poem includes wondering this: How many evangelical folks have cut down a tree, perhaps because it had become an inconvenience ... without consulting God or asking permission to kill a tree that was a part of His or Her creation? (Or ... without asking forgiveness after the fact either?) 

I can imagine a brief conversation:

"Sir (or Ma'am) -- have you done that? Did it occur to you that 'only God can make a tree'?" 

It would be an interesting discussion to have. Incidentally, the subject is also one piece of a larger topic that's dealt with thoughtfully and insightfully by Wendell Berry in his essay, "Christianity and the Survival of Creation." He wrote for instance, "How can modern Christianity have so solemnly folded its hands while so much of the work of God was and is being destroyed?"