A POEM FOR MAY - THE TREES

Though Arbor Day was on April 29^th, I chose to wait until today to give you this. Joyce Kilmer’s version of trees is one I’ve known by heart since I was very, very young. It’s almost become a cliché. Another I like is David Rosenthal’s Trees Need Not Walk the Earth. But this one by Philip Larkin speaks well of trees and new beginnings, it speaks to the Senior in me. May is a month for that. You can listen to it here and see a wonderful interpretation of the poem.

The last line's words, "begin afresh," are also apt for today. The two previous days here have brought us drenching rains, over five inches, and hail that ripped and shredded the new leaves, and completely drowned and dislodged many pot plants, including my basil and chives. May Day here was not a lovely day. But we will begin afresh.

The Trees     by Phillip Larkin

The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.

Is it that they are born again
And we grow old? No, they die too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.

Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.